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HEARINGS REGARDING COMMUNIST INFILTRATION
OF LABOR UNIONS— PART 1
(Local 601, United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers
of America, CIO, Pittsburgh, Pa.
HEARINGS
^j l^ '(jyi^i)iA^' -^ • BEFORE THE ^-
COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
EIGHTY-FIRST CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
AUGUST 9, 10, AND 11, 1949
Printed for the use of the Committee on Un-American Activities
UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
'5613 WASHINGTON : 1949
PUBLIC )
K^)354^
in
OCT ."? 19«
COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES
United States House of Representatives
JOHN S. WOOD, Georgia, Chairman
FRANCIS E. WALTER, Pennsylvania J. PARNELL THOMAS, New Jersey
BURR P. HARRISON, Virginia RICHARD M. NIXON, California
JOHN McSWEENEY, Ohio FRANCIS CASE, South Dakota
MORGAN M. MOULDER, Missouri HAROLD H. VELDB, lUinois
Prank S. Tavennee, Jr., Counsel
Louis J. Russell, Senior Investigator
John W. Caerington, Clerk of Committee
Benjamin Mandel, Director of Research
II
CONTENTS
August 9, 1949:
Testimony of — Page
Louis J. Russell 542
Joseph Zack Kornf eder 545
Charles Edward Copeland 580
William Henry Peeler 587
Blair ISeese 591
Stanley E. Glass 595
August 10, 1949:
Testimony of —
Thomas J. Fitzpatrick 599
Frank Panzino 607
Robert C. Whisner . 611
August 11, 1949:
Testimony of —
Thomas Quinn 633
Louis J. Russell 636
Joseph Zack Komfeder 637
Louis J. Russell 643
Appendix 650
* III
HEAEINGS REaAKDING COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF
LABOR UNIONS-PART 1
(Local 601. United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers
of America, CIO, Pittsburgh, Pa.)
TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1949
United States House of Representatives,
Subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities,
Washington^ D. G.
public hearings
A subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities met
pursuant to call at 10 : 30 a. m., in room 226, Old House Office Building,
Hon. John S. Wood (chairman) presiding.
Committee members present: Representatives John S. Wood,
Francis E. Walter, Burr P. Harrison, and John McSweeney.
Staff members present : Frank S. Tavenner, Jr., counsel ; Louis J.
Russell, senior investigator ; Donald T. Appell, investigator ; John W.
Carrington, clerk; Benjamin Mandel, director of research; and A. S.
Poore, editor.
Mr. Wood. The committee will be in order, please.
The record will disclose that Mr. Walter, Mr. McSweeney, and Mr.
Wood are present.
Mr. Attorney, do you have something this morning?
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Chairman, the purpose of this hearing is to;
inquire into the question of Communist affiliation or association of
certain members of Local 601 of the United Electrical, Radio and
Machine Workers of America, CIO, which is engaged in work at indus-
trial plants important to the national defense.
Tlie advisability of recommending legislation providing for security
standards, and the advisability of tightening present security require-
ments in industrial plants working on certain Govermnent contracts,
was considered by the committee in both its open and executive ses-
sions on June 6, 1949, as a result of the testimony of Leona and Joseph
Franey and Loren G. Haas.
It will be remembered that Mr. Wood, tlie chairman of this com-
mittee, offered H. R. 3903, section 2 of which would make it an offense
for any individual employed in connection with the performance of
any national defense contract "(1) to become or remain a member of,
or affiliated with, the Communist Party of the United States of Amer-
ica, or any organization which shall have been designated as subversive
by the Attorney General; (2) to contribute funds or services to the
Communist Party of the United States of America or to any organiza-
tion which shall have been designated as subversive by the Attorney
541
542 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
General; or (3) to advise, counsel, or urge any other individual em-
ployed in connection with the performance of any national defense
contract to perform, or to omit to perform, any act if such act or
omission would constitute a violation of clause (1) or (2) of this sec-
tion.'' This bill was referred to this committee.
It is the further purpose of this hearing to develop facts for the
committee's consideration in connection with this resolution.
I desire to call as the first witness, Mr. Russell.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Russell, will you hold up your right hand, please.
Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give will
be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you
God?
Mr. Russell. I do.
TESTIMONY OF LOUIS J. EUSSELL
Mr. Tavenner. Will you state your name ?
Mr. Russell. Louis J. Russell.
Mr. Wood. Let the record show Mr. Harrison is here.
Mr. Tavenner. In what capacity are you employed by this com-
mittee ?
Mr. Russell. As senior investigator.
Mr. Tavenner. How long have you been so employed ?
Mr. Russell. Since May 1945.
Mr. Tavenner. Prior to that time, where were you employed ?
Mr. Russell. By the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Russell, in the course of your investigations,
did you ascertain that the Atomic Energy Commission had issued an
order relative to loyalty in certain labor unions engaged in classified
atomic energy work ?
Mr. Russell. I did.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you have before you the letter of the Atomic
Energy Commission of November 1, 1948, addressed to Mr. Charles E.
Wilson, president of General Electric Co. ?
Mr. Russell. I do.
Mr. Tavenner. Will you read it ?
Mr. Russell. Yes. The letter, dated November 1, 1948, is addressed
to Mr. Charles E. Wilson, president. General Electric Co., 570 Lexing-
ton Avenue at Fifty-first Street, New York 22, N. Y.
Dear Mr. Wilson : Under date of September 27, 1948, the Atomic Energy Com-
mission directed that the General Electric Co. not recognize the United Electrical,
Radio and Machine Workers of America, CIO (UE), as the bargaining repre-
sentative of any persons to be employed by it at the new Knolls Atomic Power
Laboratory, Schenectady, N. Y. This direction was based upon information con-
cerning alleged Communist affiliation or association of various officers of UE. The
positions occupied within UE by these officers are such that they exercise ad-
ministrative, negotiating, or disciplinary authority within the union over General
Electric Co. employees engaged at other atomic energy facilities at Schenectady
where UE is the recognized bargaining agent.
This information when taken together with the failure of these officers to file
non-Communist affidavits under the Labor Management Relations Act, led the
Commission to conclude that thei-e is a very serious question as to whether
representation of atomic energy workers at Schenectady by a union in which
such officers occupied important positions is consistent with that full and un-
qualified adherence and loyalty to the interests of the United States that the
security of the Nation and the policy of the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 require.
Under dates of October 6 and October 22, 1948, the Atomic Energy Commission
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 543
wrote Mr. Albert J. Fitzgerald, general president of the UE, in connection
with the Commission's direction to the General Electric Co. The Commission
concluded, however, that unless this very serious question should be cleared
up satisfactorily the Commission intended to take such further steps as may be
necessary to assure that these officers do not exercise administrative, negotiating
or disciplinary autliority over CJeneral Electric Co. employees engaged in
atomic energy work, at Schenectady. The Commission offered the officers of UB
every opportunity to participate in a fuller exploration of this issue.
On October 26, 1948, Mr. Fitzgerald replied to the Commission's letters of
October 6 and 22, 1948. From this reply it appears that the officers of UE
do not intend to avail themselves of this proffered opportunity to participate
in a fuller exploration of this question. In particular it api)ears that the
officers do not intend to answer questions or submit facts concerning their
loyalty and their associations with Communist Party organizations, as in our
view they must do, in their capacity of officers of unions who have wide authority
•over atomic energy activity personnel.
Accordingly the Atomic Enery Commission now directs that General Electric
Co. withdraw and withhold recognition from the United Electrical, Radio, and
Machine Workers of America, CIO, in respect to any employees of General
Electric Co. engaged on work at AEC-owned or AEC-leased installations in the
Schenectady area or engaged on atomic work which is defined as classified by the
Atomic Energy Commission and being performed by the General Electric Co.
A reappraisal of the situation will be made within a reasonable period of
time after you have taken the necessary action to comply with this directive.
You will thereafter be advised as to any further steps that may be necessary.
We wish to emphasize that this action, while made necessary by this refusal
•of these particular union officers to accept obligations as to loyalty investiga-
tions (which their own members engaged in classified atomic energy work have
all accepted), is in no wise a reflection on the membership of this union, em-
ployees of your company, who have been investigated and cleared. Further, we
take this opportunity again to make it clear that the Commission does not object
to General Electric Co. extending recognition as bargaining agent for atomic
energy workers to any labor organization whose officers have met the requisite
standards in respect to full and unqualified adherence and loyalty to the interests
of the United States.
Sincerely yours,
United States Atomic Energy Commission.
David E. Liuenthal, Chairman.
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Russell, are you familiar with the magazine
known as New Times ?
Mr. Russell. I am.
Mr. Tavenner. Where is that magazine published?
Mr. Russell. In Moscow.
Mr. Tavenner. Is it a Communist organ ?
Mr. Russell. It is. It is an international organ of the Communist
Party.
Mr. Tavenner. Was the action of the Atomic Energy Commission
reported to this international organ of the Communist Rarty ?
Mr. Russell. Yes, it was. In the issue of January 1, 1949, volume 1,
of New Times, which is published by the newspaper Trud in Moscow,
there is contained an article on page 30 which refers to "The American
Electrical Workers' Union and its enemies." The article states, in the
first paragraph :
Julius Emspak, general secretary-treasurer of the United Electrical, Radio and
Machine Workers of America, a Congress of Industrial Organizations affiliate,
has sent us — and other publications — a copy of a letter which his union some time
ago addressed to David E. Lilienthal, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.
In the covering message Mr. Emspak writes:
Do you want me to read the letter?
Mr. Tavenner. No, I will not ask you to read the letter, but I will
ask you to state whether or not this organ of the Communist Party
544 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
upheld Mr. Emspak in his objection to the order of the Atomic Energy
Commision ?
Mr. Russell. Yes, it did. The last sentence of the article states :
* * * the activities of the UE and the stand taken by its officers are proof
that the course now pursued by the right wing A. F. of L. and CIO leaders does
not correspond to the needs, interests, and sentiments of the trade union rank
and file.
Mr. Taa^nner. With regard to the stand taken by the CIO labor
union at that time in regard to the order which you read, was that the
subject of litigation? That is, did the CIO contest in the courts the
legality of the directive of the Atomic Energy Commission with re-
gard to loyalty ?
Mr. Russell. Not the CIO ; the UE did. They filed suit in the
District of Columbia, and in a ruling issued by F. Dickinson Letts,
judge, it was stated :
The action of AEC of which the plaintiffs complained was authorized by the
Atomic Energy Act ; the court lacks jurisdiction over the subject matter of the
action in that the complainant seeks to control executive action committed
by law to the discretion of the AEC, and this court will not interfere with the
exercise of such discretion ; the complaint contains no suflicient allegation that
the action of the AEC, complained of, was arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of
discretion ; no substantial constitutional question is presented ; the Adminis-
trative Procedure Act is not applicable to the case.
Counsel for defendants will submit appropriate orders dismissing the com-
plaint.
Mr. Tavenner. What is the date of that order ?
Mr. Russell. April 25, 1949.
Mr. Tavenner. I desire to offer in evidence the letter of November
1, 1948, read by Mr. Russell, mark it "Exhibit Russell 1"; the issue
of New York Times of January 1, 1949, mark it "Exhibit Russell 2'];
and the decision of the court which was read, and mark it "Exhibit
Russell 3." 1
Mr. Wood. Without objection they will be admitted.
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Russell, the order of the Atomic Energy Com-
mission was directed to the General Electric Co. ?
Mr. Russell. That is true.
Mr, Tavenner. With what industrial plant is the union, local 601,
associated ?
Mr. Russell. Westinghouse Electrical Manufacturing Co,
Mr. Tavenner. Is it engaged, to your knowledge, in work for de-
fense projects at this time?
Mr. Russell. Not at the present time, to my knowledge, but it has
been engaged in defense projects in the past and has performed work
for the Atomic Energy Commission.
I would like to bring out the fact that statements have been issued
that these hearings were hastily arranged without committee consent.
I think the record should show that this local 601 was first investi-
gated in 1946. I personally conducted that investigation and made a
report which is in the files of this committee. The present investiga-
tion was instituted in April, and three of the witnesses who will ap-
pear this morning were contacted by Investigator Alvin Stokes. He
submitted a report, contained in the fileji of this committee, and on
the basis of information contained in that report these hearings
were set up.
* See appendix, p. 650, Exhibits Russell 1, 2, and 3.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 545
]\rr. Taa'enner. Was that April 1949?
Mr. Russell. April 1949.
Mr. Tavenner. No further questions.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Walter.
Mv. Walter. As a matter of fact, back in April this phase of the
inquiry was in connection with evidence developed concerning the
Buffalo situation, was it not ?
Mr. Russell. Yes, sir.
I\Ir. Wood. Mr. Harrison.
Mr. Harrison. No questions.
Mr. Wood. Mr. McSweeney.
Mr. McSweeney. No questions.
Mr. AVooD. The investigation of this local conducted in 1946, Mr.
Russell, was a rather intensive investigation and was under your
supervision ?
Mr. Russell. Yes, sir.
Mr. Wood. And there was a report filed with this committee in
connection with that investigation at that time?
Mr. Russell. Yes, sir.
Mr. Wood. That is all.
Mr. Ta\t:nner. Before hearing testimony of the officers and mem-
bers of local 601 I desire to offer, as general background material, the
testimony of Mr. Joseph Zack Kornfeder, who will describe the opera-
tions of the Communist International of Moscow over a broad field of
activity, including that of labor unions.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Kornfeder, do you solemnly swear the testimony you
are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
the trutli, so help you God ?
Mr. Kornfeder. I do.
Mr. Wood. Have a seat and give the reporter your name and present
address and identification.
TESTIMONY OF JOSEPH ZACK KORNFEDER
Mr. Kornfeder. Mr. name is Joseph Zack Kornfeder. My address
is 3210 Book Tower, Detroit, Mich.
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Kornfeder, are you now or have you ever been
a member of the Communist Party, U. S. A. ?
Mr. Kornfeder. I have been a member of the Communist Party,
from 1919 until 1934.
Mr. Tavenner. Under what name were you a member ?
Mr. Kornfeder. I was known in the party under the name of
Joseph Zack.
Mr. Ta\tsnner. How do you account for the fact that you used
the name Joseph Zack ?
Mr. Kornfeder. I used the name Joseph Zack in a legal sense ; that
was the maiden name of my mother.
Mr. Tavenner. What positions have you held in the Communist
Party,U. S. A.?
Mr. Kornfeder. I started as tlie branch organizer in New York
City; and then became a section organizer of the Communist Party
in New York City for Yorkville and Harlem ; and then became a sub-
district organizer, the subdistrict at that time including a part of
New York City and upper New Jersey; and then became district
546 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
organizer of the Communist Party, New York City, which covered
New York State, Connecticut, and New Jersey.
Then I became a member of the Central Committee of the Com-
munist Party of the United States and the director of labor-union
activities of the Communist Party on a national scale; and later on,
on a limited scale, in the East and in Ohio and Kentucky.
Then I was sent to Moscoav for further training in the arts of
organization and political warfare in 1927, and remained in Moscow
until April or May 1930. During my stay in Moscow I was a member
of the Anglo-American secretariat of the Communist International
for a period of nearly 2 years, and was a member of the same type of
secretariat of the Red International of Labor Unions.
Upon completing my studies in the Lenin School and my activities
at the headquarters of the Communist International I was sent as a
representative of the Communist International to South America,
and stayed there from about June 1930 until October 1931, being in
charge of the Communist Party of Colombia and Venezuela.
Upon my return toward the end of 1931, I was placed in charge
again of the Communist Party's labor-union activities in the eastern
area, and also in charge of the party's activities among the unemployed
in the same area.
I became a member of the district committee. New York district,
of the Communist Party, and later on was transferred for the same
type of activities to Ohio, with headquarters in Cleveland. I remained
in charge of these activities until about May or June 1934.
Mr. Tavenner. Have you ever written for the Communist press, or
have you been referred to officially in the Communist press ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. Yes, I have.
Mr. Tavenner. I hand you copies of four issues of the Daily Worker.
Will you examine them and state to what they refer?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. Exhibit No. 1
Mr. Ta\^nner. Suppose I introduce that issue of the Worker, bear-
ing date April 7, 1923, in evidence, and have it marked "Exhibit Korn-
feder 1."
Mr. Wood. It will be admitted.^
Mr. KoRNFEDER. This was an article in the Worker, which was the
predecessor of the Daily Worker. The Worker at that time was a
weekly. This was an article by Earl Browcler, at that time asso-
ciate editor of the Labor Herald, a special monthly publication of the
Trade Union Educational League. I am mentioned there as secretary
of the International Committee of the Needle Trades Section, TUEL
which I was at that time. The Trade Union Educational League was
the first big effort of the Communist Party to infiltrate American labor
unions, especially the American Federation of Labor and railroad
brotherhoods.
Mr. Tavenner. I now wish to offer in evidence a copy of two
pages of the May 14, 1927, issue of the Daily Worker, and mark it
"Exhibit Kornf eder 2," and ask you to state to the committee the nature
of the article contained on those two pages,
Mr. Wood. It will be admitted.^
Mr. KoRNFEDER. In this issue an article appears by Joseph Zack,.
which is myself, on the subject of The New Open Shop Drive.
2 See appendix, p. 650, Kornfeder exhibit 1.
^ See appendix, p. 650, Kornfeder exhibit 2.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 547
Mr. Tavenner. Then did you write an additional article which ap-
pears in the May 28, 1927, issue of the Daily Worker?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. Yes. This was an article in two series on the Com-
munist politics at that time in the labor-union field, in which I had a
part.
Mr. Tavenner. I desire to offer that paper in evidence and mark it
"Exhibit Kornf eder 3."
Mr. Wood. It will be admitted.*
Mr. Tavenner. Will you refer to the September 6, 1927, issue of
the Daily Worker and state what appears on pa^e 5 of that issue ?
Mr. Kornfeder. In this issue of the Daily Worker there appears a
portrait sketch of myself as a delegate to the convention of the Work-
ers Party. The Workers Party was then the name of the Communist
Party. The reason they called themselves the Workers Party is that a
few years previously the party had been underground, and they decreed
a legal party in the open and called it the Workers Party of America,
and I was a delegate to one of the conventions of this Workers Party.
Mr. Ta\^nner. I desire to offer that paper in evidence and mark it
"Exhibit Kornfeder 4."
Mr. Wood. It will be admitted.^
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Chairman, in order to further identify the wit-
ness, I desire to read into the record at this point the statement of Otto
Kuusinen, secretary of the Communist International, May 12, 1929, as
published in the hearings of the Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties, volume 11, page 7127 :
1 tell Comrade Foster quite plainly that anyone who advises him to go on with
the factional strife, be he ever so much a good friend of his, is rendering him a
very bad service, whether it be Comrade Bittelman, Comrade Zack, Comrade
Browder, or anyone else.
I desire to introduce in evidence the statement which I have just
read, and mark it "Exhibit Kornfeder 5."
Mr. Wood. It will be admitted.^
Mr. Tavenner. I hand you now a pamphlet entitled "The Commu-
nist" and ask you what it contains on pages 67 to 80 ?
JNIr. Kornfeder. The Communist was then the theoretical journal of
the Communist Party of the United States, published monthly.
. Mr. Wood. What date is that?
Mr. Kornfeder. January 1930. There appears an article written
by me the title of which is Against the Labor Party (Militant Reform-
ism) in the U. S. A. This article was written by me in Moscow on the
basis of a study of material and information available to me in Moscow
through the Comintern, and was ordered published by the American
Communist Party by the Agitation and Propaganda Department of
the Communist International.
Mr. Tavenner. What led up to your writing the article?
Mr. Kornfeder. At that time there was an opinion in certain circles
of the American Communist Party, and also discussions on this subject
in the leading committees of the Communist International, as to wheth-
ei the Communist Party in the United States should favor the setting
up of a labor party. The decision at that time was that a labor party
would be a reformist party, and since the Communist International
* See appendix, p. 050, Kornfeder exhibit 3.
^ See appendix, p. G^O, Kornfeder exhibit 4.
* See appendix, p. 650, Kornfeder exhibit 5.
548 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
is in reality against all reforms in capitalist countries, because tliey
consider them an impediment to their objectives, I was ordered to write
an article on this subject against the theory and proposed strategy of
organizing a labor party by using the organization of the Communist
Party as a background for it.
Mr. Tavenner. By whom, or by what group, were you ordered to
write that article?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. By the then head of the Agitation and Propaganda
Department of the Communist International.
Mr. Ta\-enner. I desire to offer that document in evidence, mark it
''Exhibit Kornfeder 6."
Mr. Wood. It will be admitted.'^
Mr. Tavenner. I hand you now another article appearing in The
Communist of March 1930, and ask if you wrote that article «
Mr. Kornfeder. This article is entitled The Era of Partners and
is a review of the American Federationist, official organ of the Amer-
ican Federation of Labor, and a review of decisions of the 1929 con-
vention of the Anierican Federation of Labor. This article was also
written on the basis of material available at Communist International
headquarters in Moscow, to which I had access, and first appeared in
the official organ of the Communist International.
Mr. Wood. Was it also written by you in Moscow ?
Mr. Kornfeder. It was written by me while I was in Moscow, and
was ordered printed here in the United States in the Communist, the
monthly organ of the Communist Party of the United States.
Mr. Tavenner. I offer it in evidence and ask that it be marked "Ex-
hibit Kornfeder 7."
Mr. Wood. It will be admitted.^
Mr. Tavenner. I now hand you another issue of the Communist, of
July 1932, containing an article entitled "Place the Party on a War
Footing" by Earl Browder, and on page 601 appears this language :
Comrade Zack gave us a very rich and fruitful discussion and demonstrated
again in his speech that he is one of our most reliable and productive workers—
an essential part of the leadership of the party.
Will you identify that as an article written by Browder ?
Mr. Kornfeder. Yes. I remember this article and I also remember
the report Browder made at that time to the meetings of the central
committee and the district convention, at both of which I was present.
Mr. Tavenner. I desire to offer that paper in evidence and mark it
"Exhibit Kornfeder 8."
Mr. Wood. It will be admitted.^
Mr. Tavenner. I now hand you four more photostatic copies of
articles written by you and by others. Will you examine them and
merely identify them, and we will place them in the record ?
Mr. Kornfeder. The one entitled "The Trade Unions in New York
and the Unemployed" which appeared in the Daily Worker of March
1, 1933, was the summary of a report that I made as general secretary
of the Trade Union Unity Council, which was the Communist Party's
labor-union front in New York City. It just contains a summary of
the problems that in my view were then faced by the Communists in
the activities in that area, both in labor union and unemployed fields.
' See appendix, p. 630. Kornferter exhibit 6.
® See appendix, p. fi.^O. Kornfeder exhibit 7.
^ See appendix, p. 650, Kornfeder exhibit 8.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 549
Mr. Tavenner. I offer tliat article in evidence and ask that it be
market ''Exhibit Kornfeder 9."
Mr. Wood. It will bo admitted. ^«
]Mr. KoKNFEDER. The next one relates to a trade-union conference
for united action, which is in the form of an appeal to all American
Federation of Labor unions, central labor bodies, railroad biother-
hoods, lodges, independent trade-unions, and unemployed organiza-
tions, and pertains to a conference then engineered through the initia-
tive of the Connnunist Party, and I was a cosigner of the call for this
conference, in the capacity of secretary of the Council of Industrial
Unions, Cleveland, Ohio.
Mr. Tavenner. I offer that document in evidence and ask that it ba
marked "Exhibit Kornfeder 10."
Mr. Wood. It will be admitted."
Mr. Kornfeder. The next one appears in the Connnunist of Febru-
ary 1934, the Communist being the official theoretical organ of the
Communist Party. This article, by myself, is entitled "How to Apply
the Open Letter" and is a discussion of techniques and methods of
operation and criticism of same in connection with the activities of
labor unions and among the unemployed.
Mr. Tavenner. I offer it in evidence and ask that it be marked
"Exhibit Kornfeder 11."
Mr. Wood. It will be admitted.^-
Mr. Tavenner. You refer to the Open Letter. What is meant by the
open letter^
"Sir. KoKNEKDKR. The Open Letter was a new directive of the Com-
munist International to the Connnunist Party of the United States,
in which the Communist Party of the United States was criticized for
mistakes and shortcomings and so on, and was directed to change its
methods and techniques in various fields in order to conform with the
line of the Communist International.
Next is an article in the Communist of April 1934, by myself. The
title is, "The Line Is Correct, To Realize it Organizationally Is the
Central Problem." I open up the discussion with the then current
or proposed line of policy of the American Communist Party in the
labor-union field. It is this presentation of disagreement which later
on directly led to my leaving the Communist Party of the United
States.
Mr. Tavenner. I offer that document in evidence and ask that it be
marked "Exhibit Kornfeder 12."
Mr. Wood. It will be admitted."
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Chairman, rather than ask questions and solicit
answers, I believe it would expedite the hearing if the witness would
read a prepared statement which we have asked him to make regarding
the operations of the International Communist Party.
Mr. Wood. Is that the statement a copy of which is on the desk?
Mr. Ta\t:nner. Yes.
Mr. Wood. Very well. You may proceed.
Mr. Kornfeder. I may interpolate some additional explanations as I
go along, if that is agreeable to the connnittee.
'" See appencHx. p. (>')(), Kornfeder exliibit 9.
" See apiieiiilix. p. fioO, Konifeder exhibit 10.
" See appendix, p. G.")0. Kornfeder exhibit 11 .
" See appendix, p. 650, Kornfeder exhibit 12.
550 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Mr. Wood. That is quite all right, sir.
Mr. Tavenner. And I might add if the members of the committee
desire to ask any questions during the course of the reading, not to
hesitate to do so.
Mr. Harrison. Does this statement give the circumstances under
which you ceased to be a member of the Communist Party ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. No ; it does not, but I expect that members of the
committee will ask me that question.
Mr. McSwEENEY. Does it mention your war service ? You served in
the First World War?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. I was in the Second World War.
Mr. McSwEENEY. That is a Legion button you are wearing?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. YcS.
Mr. McSwEENEY. You took the oath of allegiance at that time, did
you not ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. I did.
How Joseph Stalin Runs the International Communist Movement
The program and objectives of the international Communist move-
ment have been laid down in the resolutions, theses, and decisions of
the various congresses of the Communist International and in the writ-
ings of Nicolai Lenin, the founder and organizer of this insurrectionary
organization known as the Communist International and its affiliated
parties.
All of these resolutions and decisions, as well as the writings of
Lenin and Stalin, definitely set forth the necessity and advisability of
overthrowing all non-Communist governments and the social struc-
ture upon which our present-day democratic system is founded, by
force and violence, and advocate the use of any and all means to achieve
that objective.
The Communist International organization and its affiliated parties
are built with that perspective. They are not political parties in the
accepted democratic sense. They are parties of destruction of the
democratic system and, for that reason, their organizational structure,
methods, and ways of doing things are entirely diff3rent.
May I at this point quote from a pamphlet in German written by
Ossip Piatnitzky, the head of the Organization Conference of the Com-
munist International in Moscow in 1925. In this pamphlet, in para-
graph 10, relating to the organization structure of affiliated Commun-
ist Parties, he says the following :
In reference to organization forms to be pursued by the affiliated parties of
the entire world — the difference between Communist Parties and other parties
such as the Social Democratic Party is that the latter are only electioneering
machines to gather votes. For that reason, this type of parties are organized on
the basis of the election districts where voters reside.
The Communist Parties, on the other hand, have as their objective the or-
ganization of an active fight against capitalism and the governments upon which
capitalism is based. Our function is to organize in such a fashion that we can
take over the entire production and state machinery of capitalist society. For
that reason, the main basis, the very foundation, of our party organization must
be based on factories, industrial enterprises, mines, shops, offices, commercial
enterprises, etc., where workers and employees work.
Election to Parliament or municipal councils, etc., for us is only a means
for additional propaganda to diffuse our ideas along the broader lines of Com-
munist politics.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 551
Mr. Walter. By wliom is that written?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. By Ossip Piatnitzky.
Mr. Walter. When?
Mr. Kornfeder. In 1925, ri^ht at the foundation of the Communist
movement, this basis has been laid down.
Now I will quote you further in substantiation of this difference an
excerpt from a speech made by Stalin at the Presidium of the Executive
Committee of the Connnunist International on May 14, 1929,
as to the concept of the type of or^janization as exists in their minds
and is operated in the form of Communist Parties :
Soon the earth will be too hot for world capitalism. The task of the Com-
munist Parties is to begin right now with the development of mass preparatory
work for the combats to come. Tlie struggle against reformation, the struggle
for the forging of genuine revolutionary cadres and for the selection of genuine
revolutionary party leaders, people capable of going to war and leading the masses
with them, people who will not retreat before the storm and will not be panic-
stricken, but will face that storm.
This speech was made by Stalin in connection with the affairs. of
the Communist Party of the United States, which were then under
discussion in Moscow in connection with the faction fight then raging
in the Communist Party of the United States.
I may also quote, in this connection, point 3 of the Twenty-one
Conditions of Affiliation with the Communist International, which
every Communist Party, in order to be a part of the Moscow set-up,
has to accept and practice. Point 3 says as follows :
The class struggle in almost all the countries of Europe and America is enter-
ing the phase of civil war. Under such conditions the Communists can have
no contidenee in bourgeois law. They must everywhere create a parallel illegal
apparatus, which at the decisive moment could assist the party in performing
its duty to the revolution.
Then point 14 of the same Twenty-one Conditions of Affiliation
says the following :
Every party that desires to belong to the Communist International must give
every possible support to the Soviet Republic in their struggle against all counter-
revolutionary forces. The Communist Parties must carry on a precise and defi-
nite propaganda to induce the workers to refuse to transport munitions of war
intended for enemies of Soviet Russia, carry on legal or illegal propaganda
among the troops which are sent to fight the Soviet Republic, etc.
These quotations are to illustrate the different character of party
organization inherent in the Communist Party and all its practices as
compared with other party organizations. There is much more along
these lines that I could quote from all the principal leaders of the
Communist International, past and present, including Stalin and
Molotov.
On the basis of this concept of organization, every Communist Party
engages in concealed or underground activities, even though the party,
as such, is permitted to operate in the open. Every party is duty bound
to infiltrate and create secret organizations in the armed forces of its
own country. Every party must engage in secret infiltration in Gov-
ernment departments of enemy countries. Every country not con-
trolled by Moscow is considered an enemy. Every party is obliged
to infiltrate labor unions and use them for economic and political war-
fare against the enemy countries.
Every party is obliged to set up a separate organization for activi-
ties among the youth in order to alienate the youth's loyalty from
552 COMMUNIST IXFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
his own country. Every party is obliged to systematically and de-
liberately support the Soviet Union in all of its policies up to the
point of civil strife and insurrectionary activities in case of war against
Soviet Russia. Every party is duty bound to prepare itself for in-
surrectionary activities for the day when the overthrow of the existing
government and society will be deemed opportune and timely.
I shall later on say some more about the training for insurrectionary
activity which is received in the special training colleges in Moscow.
These are only some of the activities and corresponding organiza-
tional set-ups which illustrate that the organizational structure of the
international Communist movement and its affiliated parties corre-
spond to its objectives of overthrowing governments and the social
structure upon which they are founded. In short, the Communist
Party's organizational structure and activities reveal more than any-
thing else that may be said its true character.
I will now proceed to explain how this whole world-wide organiza-
tion is operated and controlled from its Moscow headquarters. My
description of its methods of operation are based on my stay at the
Moscow headquarters of the Communist International from 1927 un-
til 1930, during which time I was associated with the operations of
the Communist International as a member of the Anglo-American
Secretariat of the Communist International and of the Anglo-Ameri-
can Secretariat of the Red International of Labor Unions, and hence
had the opportunity to learn first hand how the Communist Inter-
national works.
THE ROLE OF STALIN
To start with I must say a few words about the personal role of
Stalin in this set-up.
Joseph Stalin, dictator of Russia, has since 1928 been the political
czar of the international Communist movement. No decision on
major aspects of policy or organizational operation could be made,
effective without his initiative or consent. Stalin personally has been
in charge of Communist operations in areas of major importance,
such as China, since 1926, and Germany since 1928, and there is no
doubt in my mind that since the United States and Britain have be-
come now of major interest, nothing of consequence in those coun-
tries can pass, as far as the Communist movement is concerned, with-
out Stalin's initiative and consent.
It is as a result of the experiences that Stalin had in connection
with the Chinese situation that Stalin, at the Sixth Congress of the
Communist International in 1928 in Moscow, introduced a new
formula, a new concept of strategy as to the operation of Communist
parties in backward countries. In the thesis presented at that con-
gress relating to problems in colonial countries, Stalin set up the con-
cept that in colonial countries it is not the workers that should be
the basis of Communist organizations, but the peasants; that the
peasants, that is, the farm population, are the true basis of colonial
revolution. And on the basis of that new concept the entire conquest
of China has been built. Prior to that time the concept was that the
workers are the only basis for the organization of Communist move-
ments.
As a result of this change of policy, the Communist Party of China
developed very much activity specially designed for effect among
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 553
the peasants of China. It appears that as a result of this change of
policy many people in the United States have been led to misunder-
stand the entire China situation and to conclude that the Communists
in China are merely agrarian reformists, whereas they were follow-
ing from the beginning the decision of the Sixth Congress of the
Communist International, which bases the movement in this type of
countries not upon the workers, but upon the peasants ; and naturally,
in order to make headway on the basis of this kind of polic3^, they had
to set up attractive demands and formulas in order to organize the
Chinese peasants for their purposes.
It may sound incredible that the dictator of a large country can
find time to preoccupy himself seriously with tlie affairs of so many
other countries and keep a tight rein on the activities of Communists
in several countries of special interest at the same time. The fact is,
however, that even while Stalin was personally in charge of Com-
munist affairs in China and Germany, he found time to preoccupy
himself quite extensively with the affairs of the United States of
America, which, from a long-range point of view, he even then con-
sidered as the major and ultimate enemy. It was his as well as Lenin's
concept that capitalism on this earth and democracy will not be done
away with until the United States is conquered.
My knowledge of his preoccupation with the United States, even in
those years, is based on the role I then played in the affairs of the
American Communist Party. As a member of the central committee
of the Connnunist Party, USA, I represented in Moscow what then
was known as the Foster faction. As a representative of that faction,
which was favored by Stalin, I had the opportunity of meeting Stalin,
Molotov. Manuilsky (present representative of Ukraine at the UN),
and other leaders of the central committee of the Russian Communist
Party.
The reason why Stalin, as well as Molotov and other leaders of the
Russian Communist Party, spent that much time on this faction
fight in the United States, was because Stalin, considering this country
of utmost importance in the total scheme of strategy, wanted to retain
a reliable ba.se by securing control, absolute control, for his faction
of tlie Communist Party of the United States. He was then looking
far ahead when he spent that nmch time on the faction fight in the
American Communist Party.
Stalin personally directed all the major phases of the fight against
the then majority of the American Communist Party, led by Jay
Lovestone, who was considered anti-Stalinist. The instructions from
Stalin in this fight were usually transmitted to me through Losovsky,
then head of the Red International of Labor Unions, and occasionally
also througli Manuilsky, Piatnitzky, and others.
In this fight, Stalin was willing, if necessary, to spend as much
as a million dollars out of the Russian Treasury to defeat the Love-
stone faction in the American Communist Party and retain control
of that party for himself. In the wind-up of that fight, he and
Molotov even participated as members of the commission that tried
Lovestone and other members of the central committee of the Ameri-
can Conmumist Party siding with Lovestone, and he made a speech
on the affairs of the American Communist Party which, in expurgated
form, has been published and should be available for the record.
95613—49 — pt. 1 2
.554 COMMUNIST liSTFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Now, to give you an idea how possessive Stalin and Molotov felt it
necessary to be in regard to the Communist Party of the United
States, I will make a few quotations from their speeches in reference
to the situation in the American Communist Party at that time.
This was marked "confidential," to be used only for the minutes of
the Communist International. The speech was made at the Presidium
on May 14, 1929. Stalin speaking, I quote :
If the comrades of the American delegation accept our terms — good and well ;
if they don't, so much the worse for them. The Comintern will take its own
under any circumstances. You can be sure of that, dear comrades.
Another part of his speech on the same occasion says :
Do you think that the American Communists will follow you against the
Comintern? The history of the Comintern knows a series of instances, when
popular leaders, more popular than you are, became isolated just as soon as they
raised their banner of revolt against the Comintern. Do you think that you will
be luckier than those leaders? No hopes, comrades. Now you will still have a
formal majority. But tomorrow there will be no majority for you, and you,
and you will be hopelessly isolated if you try to fight against the decisions of
the Presidium of the Communist International.
I remember this scene very well. I was present during all the
sessions at Comintern headquarters that took place at that time. It
was one of the rare moments Vvhen Stalin completely lost self-
control. He was goaded into intolerance — I mean open manifesta-
tion of intolerance — by some of the speeches that were made there by
the leaders of the American Communist Party, like Ben j amin Gitlo w,
and as a result he really let fly. I remember parts that are not in
the transcript, where he said, pointing at Gitlow and Lovestone:
"After I get through with you, all you will have left will be your wives
and your sweethearts."
Here is another part which shows their intense interest in retaining
control, even of the then relatively small organization that existed in
the United States. I quote from Stalin :
Comrades Lovestone and Bittelman must be recalled and placed at the disposal
of the Comintern so that the leaders of the American Communist Party may
realize at last that the Comintern is in real earnest about combating faction-
alism.
I call your attention to the concept that they must be recalled. In
other words, these two, who were leaders of the American Communist
Party, are in this concept not considered as leaders of the American
Communist Party, but they are considered as instruments designated
by Moscow to perform a certain function, and whenever Moscow wants
to eliminate them from that function, they recall them back to Moscow.
This was a concept previously not existent.
Before I proceed I may at this time, in connection with this fight,
also introduce parts of the speech of Molotov, who attended all the
discussions and followed Stalin. I quote :
Comrades, I have very little to add to what Comrade Stalin has said.
I may interpolate he always has very little to add after Stalin speaks.
[Continuing reading:]
I fully agree with his estimate of the situation in the American party and his
estimate of the various sections of that party.
I may say at this point that Molotov, for 6 months prior to this
occasion, had been directly in charge of the affairs of the American
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 555
Communist Party at Communist International headquarters. He had
two parties under his direction at that time, the Communist Party
of the United States and the Communist Party of France. I continue :
What we have in America now is unreliable and unsound. A ruthless struggle
is necessary for Comintern principles ; i>ersistent work must be conducted for
the ideological consolidation of the party.
The Comintern would be no Comintern if it were not to effect at the present
time a decisive change in the struggle against factionalism in the American
party. The struggle against factionalism now, in the present phase, must be
different from what it was in tlie past.
Let me explain there used to be disputations in the Communist
Party in the past before Stalin came into complete control. These
disputations were considered a natural part of the growth of an
organization, and differences in the eyes of individuals even if they
are agreed on general theory.
But when Stalin came into complete control, disputations of this
kind were called factionalism, and they were completely suppressed.
Stalin transformed the Communist parties into centralized totali-
tarian parties. When Molotov says, "The struggle against faction-
alism now, in the present phase, must be different from what it was
in 'the past," he means that from then on Stalin will take over the
parties and there will be no more factions except his own.
I continue quoting from Molotov's speech :
That is why it would not do to stop merely at the sending of an open political
letter without taking certain organizational measures, measures mapped out by
the Comintern prior to the convention.
I may say the organizational measures meant the Communist Inter-
national will appoint all the leaders of the Communist Party hence-
forth, and all the heads of the important sections of that party, at its
own discretion and will. I continue :
The carrying out of these decisions is absolutely necessary in order to stop the
factional fight in the party. The time has come for the Communist Party of the
United States of America to get on a new track, and with the support of the
Comintern, to insure the proper development of the party, insure the liquidation
of factionalism not in words but in deeds.
The interesting part of all these speeches about factionalism by
Stalin and Molotov, which indicates at least in part their methods of
operation, which I intend to deal with later, is that while all these
speeches were being made I was the one who, at the direction of Stalin
and Molotov, was told how to carry out the factional fight in the Amer-
ican Party and to transmit Stalin and Molotov's wishes to William Z.
Foster and others in the United States carrying on that fight.
stalin's battery of secretaries
Now I come to the next part in the illustration of Stalin's personal
role in the direction of the Communist International organization.
In 1928, Stalin added to his personal secretariat a number of secre-
taries to double-check on his appointees in the Communist Interna-
tional and keep him informed on the carrying out and enforcement of
his orders. Each of these secretaries had a special area of operation.
There was a secretary on German affairs, a secretary on Chinese
affairs, a secretary on French affairs, a secretary on American affairs,
and so forth. The secretary on American affairs was B. Mikhailov,
556 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
who in 1930, under the name of George Williams, became Stalin's per-
sonal representative in the purging and reorganization of the Com-
munist Party, USA.
I met ^likhailov several times in his Moscow apartment and later on
in the United States. Although his authority designated him as Com-
intern representative, I knew from my own knowledge of things be-
hind the scenes in Moscow that he was Stalin's personal representative.
His word was law in the American Communist Party, and he ruth-
lessly purged the party in the United States of all adherents or sus-
pected adherents of Lovestone. He had at his disposal unlimited funds
for that purpose.
I remember an incident where he had received a cable in code from
the Paris bureau of the Communist International (Paris, France),
which he could not decode on the basis of the key that he had for de-
coding and, since ,he knew that I, myself, was to go to South America
(Colombia and Venezuela) as a representative of the Connnunist In-
ternational, he asked me whether I could decode it on the basis of my
key, but I could not. Apparently the Paris bureau of the Communist
International used the wrong key, and he was very angry about this.
In later years, Stalin's battery of secretaries became in fact the con-
trolling and ruling body through which Stalin controlled and op-
erated the international Communist movement. So when, in 1943,
the Communist International was formally dissolved, the dissolution
was in fact only a deception. In reality, the Communist International
organization continued to operate under direct control of Stalin
through his special secretaries.
As will be seen from what follows, Stalin's special secretaries were,
of course, only one of the instrumentalities of control. The Commu-
nist International organization is dependent upon Moscow in many
other ways, which I shall herewith enumerate.
FINANCES
The question of finances. To start with, the salaries for all em-
ployees working in the headquarters of the Communist International
are provided by the Russian Treasury. The same is true as to salaries
and expenses for all agents, representatives, and instructors sent out
from Moscow to control and direct the various Communist Parties on
the spot. Moscow headquarters also provides for subsidies for the
Communist press in the various countries. It also provides subsidies
intended to channel Communist activities into strategic industries,
such as maritime, transportation, communication, and the infiltration
of steel, mining, oil, and other industries deemed of strategic impor-
tance to Moscow's over-all military strategy of conquest. Without
these subsidies, various Communist Parties could not carry through
the policies dictated by Moscow, and would become dependent upon
revenue from their own home countries.
(Representative McSweeney leaves.)
Mr. Walter. Do you know how the funds are transmitted for the
carrying out of these purposes ?
Mr. KoKNFEDER. I know some of the methods.
Mr. Walter. For example, how are the representatives of the Mos-
cow organization paid in this country ?
COMMUNIST INFILTRATIOiN^ OF LABOR UNIONS 557
Mr. KoRNFEDER. Well, the ones that represent the Communist In-
ternational are paid out of the subsidies that Moscow allocates for the
operations of that particular representative. For instance, when I
went to South iVmerica as a representative of the Comnumist Interna-
tional, I had, for the first 6 months of operation in Col()ml)ia, an initial
appropriation of $15,000.
Mr. Walter. Where did it come from ?
Mr. KoRXFEDER. The $15,000 were received by me in the following
fashion: They were first sent to Berlin to a banking concern whose
name I do not know, and then transmitted to New York, and from
New York transferred to me to a certain bank in Bogota, Colombia,
and I drew the funds from there.
Mr. Walter. Is that the pattern followed in all cases? Is the
money transferred from Kussia to a New York bank and there picked
up?
Mr. Kornfeder. Yes.
Mr. Walter. Do you know what banking institutions participate in
those activities?
Mr. Kornfeder. The American Communist Party used to get some
through the old Bank of the United States, and later on through the
Amalgamated Bank, which still exists. I don't know if the same
channel is still used for the transmission of funds.
But that is only one way of receiving funds. The other way is
through the Soviet commercial agencies ; and the third way is through
individuals of confidence to whose account the money may be banked,
say, in Germany, and then transferred to another individual of con-
fidence in the United States to his personal account.
Mr. Walter. When the money is transmitted to a bank in the
United States to somebody's credit, then, of course, that person has to
go to the bank in order to pick up the money ?
Mr. Kornfeder. Yes.
Mr. Walter. Who does that, many individuals, or just one or two?
Mr. Kornfeder. Whoever is designated by the general secretary of
the party, with the consent of the representative of the Communist
International, who may be then resident and operating behind the
scenes.
I may at this point say that the subsidies of the Communist Party,
both for its national headquarters and its press, have a great deal to
do with the nature of the Communist Party. If a party were entirely
dependent upon contributions from its own members or sympathizers,
it would have to listen to their opinions and to their wishes. The
l>arty could not become as thoroughly a totalitarian organization as
the Communist Party has become. But if the center can become
independent of the membership by subsidies — and whenever there
is a dispute in the party, Moscow, even if the income of the party
drops, will subsidize that center — then, of course, the party becomes a.
tool of those who dispense the subsidies, irrespective of the attitude
of its own members.
Of course the same holds true with the party investing funds in
organization campaigns that financially would not be remunerative,
but because Moscow is interested, let us say, to organize deep-seamen
for strategic reasons, it will furnish the necessary subsidies to operate
in that field for strategic reasons, even though the party, on the basis
of its own income, could not afford it.
558 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
TRAINING COLLEGES
I will come to the next part of the set-up as operated from Moscow,
and this relates to training colleges.
The vast Communist International organization could not be oper-
ated without trained personnel. Therefore, the Russian Communist
Party, which has control over the Soviet Government and disposes of
all of its resources, began, in 1926, to set up a vast network of political
training colleges to train non-Russian Communists in the various
arts of political warfare and types of organization and methods of
operation suitable to the purposes of Moscow.
All of these colleges are under the direct control of the Central
Committee of the Russian Communist Party and every non-Russian
Communist who comes to Moscow for training is, after 90 days, trans-
ferred into membership of the Russian Communist Party and is sub-
ject to its dictates. Moscow has five training colleges of this type in
Moscow City itself. There are others in other cities. I will only
speak of the ones in Moscow because I know personally of their exis-
tence, and there were other Americans who studied m them whom
I knew personally.
Lenin University : Lenin University has a capacity for 600 trainees
who are recruited through the Communist Parties of industrially de-
veloped countries, such as central and western Europe, England, the
Americas, the British Empire, etc.
Eastern University : Eastern University has a capacity for 2,000
trainees, recruited from China, Indonesia, India, Korea, Malaya,
Burma, etc.
I may say at this point that most of the officers of the Chinese Com-
munist Party were trained at Eastern University, and by the thou-
sands, ever since 1926. If anybody has an illusion that Moscow has a
loose control over the Chinese Communist Party, he is very much
mistaken.
'Weste7-'n University: Western University has a capacity for 1,200
trainees, recruited mostly from the then independent Balkan and
Baltic countries.
Academy of Red Professors: The Academy of Red Professors has
a capacity for 200 trainees, taking a 5- to 7-year course, which is
more extensive and thorough than the other training colleges in the
theory, methods, and organization of political warfare. The men
trained in this academy usually become the political representatives of
the Communist International of the major Communist Parties.
Mr. Walter. Did many Americans attend the Academy of Red
Professors ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. There are two I know of.
Mr. Walter. Wlio were they?
Mr. Kornfeder. Sam Don, D-o-n, who later became editor of the
Daily Worker; and another one was Miller, I believe Clarence Miller.
After his graduation he was utilized in the apparatus of the Commu-
nist International. I don't know to what extent he became active in
the American Communist Party, however. I haven't seen his name in
any public activity. Of course there were others, but I don't know
them personally.
Soviet Military Academy: The Soviet Military Academy has a
special section for training those among the foreign Communists who,
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 559'
because of their ability and military aptitudes, have been chosen for
staff training, enabling them to organize and lead insurrectionary
general warfare on a large scale.
Mr. Walter. Do you know of any Americans who attended the
Soviet Military Academy ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. No ; I don't.
Mr. Harrison. How about Lenin?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. Lenin University?
Mr. Harrison. Yes.
Mr. KoRNFEDER. Yes ; I know quite a few who attended there.
Mr. Harrison. Name some of them,
Mr. KoRNFEDER. Charles Krumbein. Margaret Cowl, which is an
assumed name ; her real name is Margaret Unjus, U-n-j-u-s. Rudolph
Baker, a Yugoslav, I don't recall his real name. Clarence Hathaway,
who later became editor of the Daily Worker.
And there were several Negroes. One, I believe, whose name was
Harry Haywood; and another one went by the name of Brady, whose
real name, I believe, is Lightfoot. There were several others whose
names offhand I don't recall, but there were quite a batch of them. And
the same thing is the case in Eastern University. The mass of Negro
students from the United States they used to send to Eastern Univer-
sity because in the concept of the leaders of the Comintern the Negroes
are treated as colonials. Eastern University is training personnel for
the eastern countries, and they would usually assign the largest num-
ber of Negroes from the American Communist Party to the Eastern
University. As was to be expected, the American Negroes are
accustomed to a standard way above that of the Chinese and others,
and they used to have a problem on their hands from Negro Com-
munists assigned to Eastern University. That was the case when
I was there. They couldn't stomach the food, and couldn't stand
the smelly accommodations, and couldn't live without baths and so on,
so they really had plenty of trouble on their hands on account of that.
Mr. Ta\t:nn£R. Was Steve Nelson there while you were there ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. No ; he came shortly after. I know he went there,
but he either came about the time when I was ready to leave or shortly
after. I know he was due to be at the Lenin School.
Mr. Tavenner. Did you know^ Nowell?
Mr. Kornfeder. Yes.
Mr, Tavenner. Was he there while you were there?
jMr. Kornfeder. No; Nowell came there, I think, 1 year after I left.
Mr. Tavenner. Did you know Carl Reeve?
Mr. Kornfeder. Carl Reeve was there at the same time I was,
Mr, Tavenner, Did you name Hathaway?
Mr, Kornfeder. Clarence Hathaway, yes,
Air. Tavenner. All right. Proceed.
Mr. Kornfeder. In addition to the above training schools there are-
some supersecret schools of which I heard but have no personal knowl-
edge, which train non-Russian Communists for the Soviet secret serv-
ice in capitalistic countries. These "hush-hush" schools educate spies
in the various arts of underground warfare, espionage, and sabotage,
which, in .the political warfare colleges, are taught only in abbreviated
form.
In all of these training colleges, 10 percent of the personnel is made
up of Russians who, after their graduation, are used in the interna-
560 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
tional apparatus of the Communist International organization or in
the Soviet diplomatic or secret service.
The expenses for the maintenance of the thousands of trainees
turned out every year, for their transportation to and from Russia and
for the salaries of the teaching staff are defrayed by the Sotiet treas-
ury. All of the above-enumerated training colleges have contingents
from the Communist Party of the United States.
Trainees from the United States who are active in the various Com-
munist-controlled foreign-language organizations are, as a rule, sent
to the Western University, and the native Americans or naturalized
Americans who have a good command of the English language are
trained in Lenin University.
The number of trainees turned out by these schools since 1926,
in my estimation — and I only take into account the ones I know of
directly located in Moscow — must be at least 50,000 or more men and
women.
Mr. Wood. About what percentage of those, based on attendance at
the time you were there, were from the States?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. From the States, counting all the different colleges
over a period of 23 years, I would estimate the number trained at about
900 to 1,200.
Mr. Wood. About 2 percent, then?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. Yes.
Mr. Tavenner. How were you paid while you were at the school in
Moscow ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. Your maintenance is taken care of completely right
on the school grounds. Then you get an allowance for clothing which
is extra. Then at that time the ruble was worth much more than now,
and you had an extra of 50 rubles a month.
Mr. Walter. Who paid your transportation?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. The Soviet treasury, through the Commuunist
International.
Mr. Walter. Where did you receive that ? In New York ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. In New York, yes.
Mr. Walter. Who paid that?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. The one who gave me the money at that time, I
believe, was Jack Stachel, the organization secretary, who was then in
charge of the organization department.
Mr. Walter. You had to obtain a passport to go to Russia ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. Certainly.
Mr. Walter. 'V^Hiat reason did you give to go to Russia when you
made your application for a passport ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. I didn't say I was going to Russia, I said I was
going to France, Germany, and so on. Russia was not mentioned.
molotov
Vyachislav Molotov, until recently Foreign Minister of the Soviet
Union, was, beginning in 1929, Stalin's deputy and second in charge
of the Communist International, and had at that time direct charge
of the affairs of the Communist Party of the United States and of the
Communist Party of France.
Molotov's knowledge of conditions and life in countries outside of
Russia at that time was very skimpy. I remember, in the case of the
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 561
faction fight above referred to between the Foster and Lovestone
factions in the American Conununist Party, he had decided that Wil-
liam Z. Foster was to become the general secretary to replace Love-
stone, and I communicated that decision to the Foster faction in the
United States.
Witliin a week of Molotov's decision, I was asked to meet Losovsky —
now reputedly in charge behind the scenes of the activities of the
Japanese Communist Party — in his apartment in Moscow, and was
told that there was some bad new^s. The bad news consisted of Losov-
sky's telling me that Stalin had overruled Molotov for strategic rea-
sons, and tliat Foster was not to be the secretary. Instead, there was
to be a secretariat composed of two Lovestone adherents who had
capitulated and Earl Browder, a Foster adherent then operating in
China.
I was not surprised nt what Losovsky told me because I had already
heard of tlie new decision from the editor of the Bolshevik theoretical
journal of the Russian Communist Party. I objected, of course, to
the new decision but was told by Losovsky that if I did anything
against it, it would have very serious consequences for me personally.
Mr. Wood, What did you understand from that ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. From that you could easily understand two things :
(1) That I wouldn't be able to get out of Russia, since because most
Communists come there not on their own passports, the Soviet Govern-
ment, if it so wishes, can charge them with illegal entry and suspected
espionage because they came in on false passports; and (2) it could
mean I would be sent certain places from which Communists usually
don't come back.
Mr. Wood. Is that what you understood ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. That is right.
Mr. Walter. How did you get out of Russia actually ?
Mr. KoRNFEDEK, I remained in their good graces. I had that much
sense.
Mr. Walter. You had to have travel visas. When you came back
to the United States, where did you sail from ? When you left Russia,
where did you go ?
Mr. Kornfeder. To New York.
Mr. Wali^er. By way of what?
Mr. Kornfeder. By way of Finland. If you are in good standing,
visas are very simple.
Mr. Walter. You said you had no Russian visa to go into Russia.
Mr. Kornfeder. I obtained a Russian visa in German}^ through the
Berlin Communist Party. That visa was not placed on the passport
but on a separate piece of paper.
Mr. Walter. It was called a travel permit ?
Mr. Kornfeder. That is right. And when I left Russia the exit
visa was on a separate piece of paper and was not stamped on the
passport.
Losovsky also assured me that this was only a tactical change and
that, in fact, the Lovestone faction was going to be thoroughly cleaned
out of the party, and that the adherents of the Foster faction would
be put in control, but it would have to be done more gradually.
I met Molotov subsequently on the premises of the Lenin School
with an interpreter, and had an opportunity to see for myself how
ignorant he w^as of American affairs. However, he remained in
562 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
charge, under Stalin, of the affairs of the Communist Party of the
United States and of the Communist Party of France and later on of
England.
The regular bodies of the Communist International, such as its
Executive Committee, its Presidium, and so forth, could not, except
on formal occasions when some resolutions had to be formally adopted,
act on the affairs of the major Communist parties because their affairs
were handled directly, either through Stalin or MolotoA'', and the
affairs of the Russian Communist Party had long ceased to be, even
in a formal sense, on the agenda of the regular committees of the
■Communist International,
The Russian Communist Party never considered itself subject to
the decisions of the Communist International, and, on the contrary,
it is the Russian Communist Party who directed the affairs of all
other Communist parties through the apparatus of the Communist
International.
I recall the testimony of Krivitsky, which I think illustrates this
perfectly. Krivitsky was a former general of their intelligence serv-
ices in western Europe, and he said the following :
The Communist International is not an organization of autonomous and
independent parties. The Communist parties are nothing more than brancli
offices of the Russian Communist Party. The Communist International that
operates in Moscow is nothing more than an administrative body which trans-
mits the decrees reached by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of
the Russian Communist Party.
If I had any illusions on this subject, certainly my experiences in
Moscow disabused me completely as to who really runs and controls
the Communist parties outside of Russia.
KEY DEPARTMENTS
Now I come to the key departments through which the actual con-
trol and operation of the various Communist parties is directed and
controlled in Moscow.
The mere training of large numbers of personnel does not, in itself,
constitute a well-ordered organization, and Stalin, if anything, <i# a
thorough and despotic organizer ; hence, in what follows, I shall show
how all this personnel is organized.
Moscow's control over the worldwide Communist Party is executed
mainly through a number of key departments operating from Moscow
headquarters, through which leadership and control flows over the
affiliated Communist parties.
THE AGITATION PROPAGANDA DEPARTMENT
This department at that time was headed by Karl Radek, one of the
ablest propagandists. It has control and supervision over the entire
Communist press in all countries. It also has charge over the whole
publishing business designed for non-Russian Communist parties
inside and outside of Russia.
In the course of time under Stalin, this and other departments
tightened their control over their respective fields more and more.
3y 1929, no one could become an editor, or a manager, or a writer
on foreign affairs, in any of the chief publications of the Communist
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 563
parties without approval of the Agitation Propaganda Department
in Moscow.
The political bureau of the American Communist Party would then
eitlier have to seek prior approval of the editor of the Daily Worker
or, if appointed to that position by its own initiative, the editor would
still have to be sanctioned by Moscow headquarters. The Daily
Worker, in fact, was a creature of the subsidies emanating from Mos-
cow. The same was the case with the Daily Worker of the British
Communist Party. The Daily Worker is regularly analyzed by the
experts of the Agitation and Propaganda Department, and detailed
instructions are given as to its line of policy and contents.
As a member of the Anglo-American Secretariat, the situation,
financially and otherwise, of the Daily Worker of the United States
and the one published in London came up periodically for discussion.
The Daily Worker at that time was subsidized to the extent of 70
percent and more by Moscow. It was created by a lump subsidy from
Moscow in the first place. And the Daily Worker in London at that
time was subsidized to the extent of 95 percent by Moscow.
Clarence Hathaway, who was the first editor of the Daily Worker
after the great purge of Lovestonites, and who was a trainee of the
Lenin University, was made editor by decision made in Moscow. That
is, they devised the arguments to make the changes palatable to the
rank and file.
The Agitation and Propaganda Department is in charge also of the
formulation of theories and slogans to justify various sudden changes
in party line dictated from Moscow. It is this department that de-
vises the propaganda techniques followed by the various Communist
parties. When a new front is created, such as the former League
Against Imperialism, it is the department which devises the theory
and platform to justify the creation of such a front. There was a
front to operate against the United States in South America and
against England in India and other colonies of Britain and France.
The Agitation and Propaganda Department is the department in
charge of the so-called cultural activities of the various Communist
fronts operating amon^ professionals, such as scenario writers, artists,
and intellectuals in various fields. It directs the radio set-ups beam-
ing propaganda in various languages to the four corners of the earth,
and is in charge of other propaganda fields.
As a representative of the Foster faction in Moscow, I had occa-
sion to write various pieces of propaganda to be used on the Moscow
radio for the United States.
The Agitation and Propaganda Department is also the department
charged with recommendations for subsidies for the Communist press
in the United States and the publication houses which publish Com-
munist books, such as International Publishers in the United States.
They order the International Publishers what to print and what not
to print. International Publishers, headed by Alexander Trachten-
berg, is entirely a creature of Moscow.
THE ORGANIZATION DEPARTMENT
The Organization Department, at the time of my stay in Moscow,
was headed by Ossip Piatnitzky, assisted by one Vasiliev. Piatnitzky
was one of the ablest political organizers t ever met. He was a spe-
cialist on underground techniques. This department is in direct
564 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
charge of all the organization politics of the Communist parties and
has extensive personnel to enforce its decisions,
I sat in on various organization conferences conducted by this de-
partment, and one discussion which I well remember was on the re-
sults of reorganizing the entire structure of the American Commu-
nist Party. The party in the United States had originally been based
upon foreign-language federations which had been taken over from
the Socialist Party of the United States and continued to function as
before, except that they were affiliated now with the Communist
Party.
Moscow decided that this entire structure had to be scrapped com-
pletely and that the members belonging to the language federations
would have to become members of the regl^lar territorial units of the
Communist Party in order to have a more thorough check on their
activities, and make them subject to the main objectives of Moscow,
namely, infiltration into labor unions, participation in the general
activities of the party, and so forth.
The language federations were, as a result of this decision, replaced
by language bureaus appointed by the central committee, thus bring-
ing activities among the foreign language minorities in the United
States under a more complete control by Moscow.
Another organization conference discussion I attended related to
a. still further reorganization of the Communist Party activities in
the United States and other countries, and the results of these dis-
cussions were also applied to Communist parties in other countries.
This reorganization called for organization of Communist Party units
based on factories, trades, and industries.
Under this scheme, Communists who were union members or pro-
fessionals operating in the teaching field, book-publishing field, en-
gineering field, and so forth, were to be organized on the basis of their
occupation, and would operate as Communist units in their own pro-
fession or occupation.
All members of the Communist Party who were eligible to join the
unions were ordered to join them. The territorial units upon which
the party had been based formerly were reduced to a minor role under
this scheme of organization. In the course of years, this complete re-
organization plan was put into effect.
I am giving these illustrations to indicate to what extent Moscow
headquarters has control over the organization, practices, and details
of the various Communist parties, including the Communist Party of
the United States.
The Organization Department has also a great deal to say about any
organization personnel in the various Communist parties. It has its
own instructors to enforce its decisions upon the parties. As a rule, it
chooses the heads of the organization departments of the various
Communist parties, such as J. Peters, recently deported from the
United States, or Alpi, his predecessor, and the same applies to dis-
trict organization directors of the Communist parties in the various
States, and to district organizers.
The Organization Department also supervises and directs organiza-
tion techniques to be used in the organization of various types of Com-
munist fronts. It is the department which has the most to say as to
what subsidies should be granted in lump sums to the central com-
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 565
mittees of the various Coiiinmnist Parties, how, and in what field the
subsidies are to be spent.
THE LABOR UNION ACTIVITIES DEPARTMENT
This department was operated by Solomon Losovsky, the ablest
man Moscow had at that time for this tj'pe of activity. The activities
of this department, due to the extraordinary importance which the
Moscow command attaches to the conquest of labor unions, had an
entirely separate set-up which occupied nearly as much space as the
Communist International headquarters itself. To the outside world,
this set-up was known as the Red International of Labor Unions,
predecessor of the World Federation of Labor Unions, set up after
the war.
This department had charge of all Communist tactics of organiza-
tion and propaganda in this special field. It was in control of all
leading fractions of Communists in labor unions outside of Russia and,
through these fractions, was able to direct the activities of all Commu-
nist-controlled unions on the five continents. / How thorough that con-
trol was I may illustrate by an incident of which I have direct per-
sonal knowledge.
I was instructed by this department, with the approval of the heads
of the Commimist International, to carry out upon my return to the
United States/the expulsion of Ben Gold, present head of the Fur and
Leather Workers International Union, CIO ; of Irving Potash, present
manager of the New York Joint Boai'd of the Fur and Leather Work-
ers International Union ; and Rose Wortis, then leader of the Needle
Trades Workers Industrial Union, and others. These leaders, all Com-
munists, had displeased Losovsky, the head of this department, and
although they had quit the Lovestone group, they were considered
deviationists.
I had in my pocket a long letter signed by the Red Labor Union
International, with Losovsky as general secretary, which was to be
published in the entire party press to justify their expulsion. In
that letter, they were denounced as corruptionists and opportunists,
and there was, of course, plenty of reason for that charge, although
that was not the main reason for the expulsion order.
With the help of Earl Browder, I prevailed upon Michailov, per-
sonal representative of Stalin, then carrying out the purge in the
American Communist Party, to send them instead to Moscow for fur-
ther training. And that is how they happened to go to Lenin Uni-
versity. The letter of the Red Labor Union International was not
published as such, but instead, a toned-down article by Jack Johnston,
then a member of the central committee of the American Communist-
Party, was published against them in the Daily Worker as a possible
base for their expulsion if, upon their return from Moscow, they should
not conform.
The Labor Union Activities Department had charge also of all
the strike strategy to be followed by unions controlled by the Com-
munist Party. It had charge of deciding where strikes were to be
called in accordance with the designs of ISIoscow, and how these strikes
were to be utilized.
Subsidies for labor-union activities had to pass through this de-
partment. I was consulted on some of these subsidies on activities in
566 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
the United States, and know that the activities in the maritime field,
in the mining field, and activities among railroad brotherhoods re-
ceived special consideration and continued subsidies. In all of these
fields, subsidies were continuous.
In addition to the subsidies for activities in certain industries, there
was a general subsidy for the Trade Unity League, then headed by
William Z. Foster. I remember especially one discussion relating to
a subsidy for activities inside the United Mine Workers, headed by
John L. Lewis. Present at that meeting were Piatnitzky, of the
Organization Deartment of the Communist International ; Losovsky,
head of the Trade Union Department ; and Melnichansky, representing
the Central Committee on the Russian Trade Unions. The complaint
was that large subsidies formerly granted for infiltration of the United
Mine Workers had not brought the results expected, and they wanted
my opinion, as a representative of the Foster faction, on a new request
for $50,000. The amount was cut in half.
Moscow had a great contempt for the abilities of American Com-
munists and, for that reason, they always took special organization
measures to see to it that they got at least a part of their money's worth.
Strikes, such as the Passaic textile strike, were much discussed and
criticized, as well as the strikes in the mining and needle trades in-
dustry, in which the Communists at that time had great influence.
There is not one strike in the United States that would not receive
a thorough analysis as to its methods of operation and its results.
Mr. Wood. We will take a recess until 2 o'clock.
(Whereupon, at 12 :45 p. m., a recess was taken until 2 p. m. of the
same day.)
AFTERNOON SESSION
Mr. Wood. The committee will be in order. Are you ready to pro-
ceed, Mr. Attorney ?
Mr. Tavenner. Yes, sir. Mr. Kornfeder, you will resume your
testimony, please.
TESTIMONY OF JOSEPH ZACK KOENFEDER— Resumed
Mr. Kornfeder. The next point on operations of the Communist
International organization, Moscow, will deal with the Underground
Activities Department.
UNDERGROUND ACTIVITIES DEPARTMENT
It is a must for all Communist Parties to carry on illegal or under-
ground activities side by side with legal or open activities. I may
illustrate the point by quoting point 4 of the Twenty-one Conditions
of Affiliation with the Communist International. I quote :
The obligation to spread Communist ideas includes the particular necessity of
persistent, systematic propaiianda in the army. Wherever such propaganda is for-
bidden by exceptional laws, it must be carried on illegally. The abandonment
of such work would be equivalent to the betrayal of revolutionary duty and is
incompatible with membership in the International.
For the efficient operation of this type of activity, there was set up
at Communist International headquarters a special department known
as OMSK, which in English signifies General International Liaison
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 567
Commission. This department was under the charge of one Abrams,
a sinister looking individual.
This is the de])artment in which I received training for the setting
up of secret short-wave radio stations in the countries to which I was
assigned, and also the method of communicating by cipher or code.
This is the department also that supplied me a specialist of the Red
Army staff to instruct me in the techniques of guerrilla warfare, which,
in the countries I was sent to, may be of advantage to organize.
The OMSK worked out the various techniques of underground
operation for the affiliated Communist Parties. It operated the secret,
short-wave radio system of code communication between the Com-
munist Parties and Moscow headquarters. It handled the forging of
passports and identity papers, the smuggling of arms and other forms
of contraband, and the routing of secret agents back and forth. It
had special channels of communication for confidential reports and
messages.
The method of creating a secret radio station, according to the
instructions I received, was to get together a group of radio amateurs
who were either Communists or close sympathizers and utilize them to
set up a radio outlet. After the creation of such a set-up, I was to
communicate with Moscow, and they were to send a specialist trained
in IMoscow who would know how to use our radio for secret communica-
tion. This department also works as a liaison between the Communist
underground activities and the Soviet Secret Service operating in
countries outside of Russia. Some of the methods of operation of this
department were revealed in the exposures of infiltration in the United
States Government agencies recently.
This department also engages in the circulation of counterfeit
money printed in Moscow. Among the first arrests made in this con-
nection were arrests made back in 1982 or 1933 in connection with the
circulation of American bank notes of high denominations. Infiltra-
tion into armed services, and the devising of sabotage techniques and
the supi)ly of armaments for civil war purposes is also handled by this
department.
YOUl^H ACTIVITIES DEPARTMENT
This department was headed by Will Munzenberg, an individual
of unusual ability who in later years became the chief organizer for
the whole system of deceptive fronts, a method of organizing sympa-
thizers and innocents which has been of such tremendous help in the
infiltration of Communists into all walks of life.
The Moscow leadership considers activities among the youth of
capitalist countries of tremendous importance; hence, the Youth Ac-
tivities Department operated through an organization then known as
the Young Communist International. The headquarters of the Young
Communist International was in the same building as that of the
Communist International and occupied an entire floor.
The present World Federation of Democratic Youth, organized by
the Communists after the war, is the successor of the Young Com-
munist International. The principal objectives of the activities of the
Young Communist International were the infiltration of colleges,
universities, and high schools of the various capitalist countries.
It is the Youth Activities Department of the Communist Inter-
national which designed all the special agitation and propaganda
568 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
methods to be used among the youth of the various countries. The
Youth Activities Department was also the department in charge of
all youth organizations and activities of the various Communist Parties
in all industries employing masses of youth. The main general ob-
jective of this activity was to induce disloyalty to one's own country
among the youth and, by creating discontent, to transfer the loyalty
of the youth to the Soviet Union.
Youth activities are interlinked with Communist labor union activi-
ties in industries or institutions employing or handling masses of
youth. The Communist Party coordinates its activities among the
teaching staffs in the school system with the youth activities among the
students or pupils in various teaching establishments.
Infiltration of armed services and contacting of armed-service per-
sonnel for both propaganda and demoralization work, form an im-
portant part of the Youth Department's activities in cooperation with
the Communist Party.
women's activities department
This department, then headed by Krupskaya, widow of Lenin, is
designed to prey on and exploit special women's grievances, and is in
charge of all the women's fronts created by the Comintern and its
affiliated Communist Parties. This department is also in charge of
the techniques of infiltration of non-Communist women's organizations
in the various countries. Its direction and activity is made effective
by the control of Communist leading fractions in the various women's
organizations.
The creation by key Communists of a World Federation of Demo-
cratic Women after the war makes it possible for this department to
coordinate all the women's organizations under Communist control,
and its infiltration activities are centralized thus into one special
women's agency through which to operate its further activities.
AGRARIAN ACTIVITIES DEPARTMENT
This department was headed at that time by Dombrowsky, specialist
on agrarian problems. Its activities were made effective by a special
set-up, then known as the Peasants International. Its job was to
design special methods of propaganda and organization adapted to
the peasant and farm population of the various countries.
Stalin considers the peasants in the colonial countries as "the axis
of the Colonial Revolution." In my time, this department was in its
infancy, but much was done in this field since. The department
operated in the various countries through Communist fractions active
in the organization of peasant leagues, farmers' unions, farm coopera-
tives, farm labor parties, and workers' and peasants' fronts, etc.
THE INTERNATIONAL CONTROL COMMISSION
The Control Commission is a policing set-up inside the Communist
International and its affiliated parties, each party having a control
commission of its own which operates under the direction of the
Control Commission in Moscow.
The Control Commission keeps a biographical file of the officers
and members of all Communist Parties and their activities. I may
COMMUNIST IXFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 569
say at this point that although the Communists in this country would
reifuse to divulge the names or activities of members of their organiza-
tions, Moscow has a complete file of the membership of tlie Com-
munist Tarty, and not only a file, it has a biogra})hical detail of every
officer, no matter how small, or leader of the Communist Party, from
the unit up. And Moscow also has a file of all the leading individuals
in all the fronts, with the details about their activities, which may
uidicate, incidentally, whom they trust and whom they don't trust.
The Control Commission in Moscow has jurisdiction over all agents
or representatives of the Communist International, as well as oyer
members of all Central Committees of the various affiliated parties.
The Control Commission of the individual Communist Parties has
jurisdiction over the rest of the personnel of each individual party.
The Control Commission may expel a member, demote a party offi-
cial, make punitive transfers to more dangerous or less desirable
activities, and initiate and carry out, if authorized by leaders in
Moscow, entire purges in the various Communist Parties.
In fact, the Control Commission may intervene in almost any and
all activities from the point of view of enforcing discipline and the
strict carrying out of the party line as dictated from Moscow.
COMINTERN INFORMATION SERVICE
Each Conmiunist Party must send to Moscow the minutes of the
meetings of its Central Committee and Political Bureau, the minutes
of all district or State executive committees, and tlie minutes of all
leading fractions operating inside of Communist-controlled or infil-
trated labor unions, and also the minutes of Communist-controlled
front organization meetings. Moscow also receives the official minutes
of all labor unions and front organizations controlled by the Commu-
nist Parties in the various countries.
All of this tremendous flow of information, when it arrives in Mos-
cow, passes through the hands of information specialists which each
of the parties sends to Moscow and who have offices at Comintern head-
quarters.
The duty of this specialist is to dissect that material and make it
ready for use or perusal by the various departments of the Communist
International. Some of the departments, such as the labor union
activities department, youth activities department, and so forth, have
their own specialists supplied by the Communist Parties of the vari-
ous countries, to analyze and use the material received for their own
special activities.
In addition to the above, each major party sends a representative to
Moscow headquarters. The representatives from the United States
in my time were Louis Enghdal, Bert Wolfe, and William Weinstone.
The functions of these representatives were to make summaries of im-
portant activities of the Communist Party of their own countries for
use by the presidium of the Communist International, and to act in a
consulting capacity on matters of their own parties to the leaders of
the Communist International.
95613— 49— pt. 1-
570 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
SECRET REPORTS
Reports concerning activities of Communists in the armed services
or infiltration in Government departments, or matters relating to
technological or other espionage, are received through special channels
and handled by the Underground Activities Department (OMSK),
above referred to. In addition to the above secret reporting, there are,
of course, the reports of the Soviet Secret Service itself, which are
handled entirely by the competent agencies of the Russian Secret
Service and often serve as a double check on the reports received from
the Communist Party itself.
COMINTERN LIBRARY
Copies of all material publislied by the various Communist Parties,
whether books, journals, newspapers, pamphlets, and even leaflets, are
sent to the Comintern Library and are available to any of the depart-
ments of the Comintern.
The same library also receives, through subscription, copies of all
important newspapers, journals, and other publications of a non-Com-
munist character, such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal,
and at least one important newspaper from each major city in the
United States.
Access to this material is available only to the officials of the Com-
munist International, officials and members of the Central Committee
of the Russian Communist Part}^, and trainees and officials of the vari-
ous political warfare colleges in Moscow. Thus, the flow of informa-
tion material on activities in the United States as well as on other
countries is truly tremendous.
The Commissariat (Ministry) of Foreign Affairs has its own set-up
and also receives a tremendous amount of material, including official
reports published by the various departments of the United States,
congressional committees, and so forth, which, of course, is also avail-
able for perusal by different agencies of the Communist International.
The material and information thus received, under the supervision
of the Agitation and Propaganda Department of the Communist In-
ternational and the corresponding department of the Russian Com-
munist Party, is used in shaping the material for broadcasts over the
Moscow radio and also used as the basis for articles by the Russian
press.
COMINTERN SECRETARIATS
In order to give more specialized direction to the various Communist
Parties, Moscow headquarters has, in addition to the basic depart-
ments above enumerated, a system of continental or semicontinental
secretariats. There is the Far Eastern Secretariat, at that time led
by Lominadse; the Central European Secretariat, led by Dimitrov;
the Anglo-American Secretariat led by Petrowski; and the Latin-
American Secretai'iat led by Togliatti, then known in Moscow as
Ercoli, present leader of the Italian Communist Party; the Carib-
bean Secretariat, led by Bittelman, an American Communist now held
for deportation; and the Balkan Secretariat, led by the late Bela Kun,
former dictator of Hungary, and later by Rakosi, present dictator of
Hungary.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 571
The Anglo- American, Far Eastern, and Latin- American Secre-
tariats at that time operated from Moscow headquarters. The Cen^
tral European Secretariat operated from Berlin ; the Caribbean Secre-
tariat operated from New York ; and the Balkan Secretariat operated
from Vienna, Austria. The function of these secretariats is to sup-
ply a more detailed political supervision over the operations of the
various Communist Parties under their jurisdiction, to elaborate on
the tactical adaptation of the directives of Moscow headquarters, to
report on conditions in countries under their supervision, and to re-
port on matters of strategy to be pursued in the special areas of the
globe in which they operate.
THE SYSTEM OF COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL REPRESENTATIVES AND
INSTRUCTORS
Moscow headquarters is not satisfied with checking on the Commu-
nist Parties from a long distance, however. Hence, a system of field
representatives operating right on the ground had been established
early in the existence of the Communist International, and has been
highly developed since Stalin's advance to absolute power.
Prior to the establishment of complete control by Stalin, the Com-
munist International used to send occasional representatives to re-
solve disputes in the various Communist Parties. Beginning with
1926 and 1927, however, a system of resident representatives of the
Communist International to the major Communist Parties began to be
established.
By 1929, this was followed by whole staffs, all under the supervision
of the Communist International, and its continental and semicon-
tinental secretariats took charge of the major departments of each
Communist Party.
The Communist International representative was, behind the scenes,
the top political boss of the Communist Party to which he was
assigned. Under his orders are Communist International instructors
who are in charge of the Organization Department, the Agitation and
Propaganda Department, Underground Activities Department, Youth
Activities Department, Labor Union Activities Department, and so
forth.
The Communist International representative and his staff operate,
of course, entirely behind the scenes and are known under assumed
names only to those supreme inside the party. The establishment of
this sj^stem of representatives and their staffs strengthens the iron
grip of Stalin upon the various Communist Parties, reducing the
leaders to mere "Charlie McCarthy's" of those who stand behind
them.
Ability on the part of the official leaders of the party was de-
sirable, of course, but only if they were completely subservient to the
dictates of Moscow.
Moscow, through its staff on the spot, made certain, however, that
the party was run according to its dictates, even by individuals of
little ability, if need be. The representatives and instructors to the
Communist Party of the United States that I have knowledge of
were Gussev, a former Russian general, alias P. Green ; Poganj, former
Minister of War in the former Hungarian Government, alias Schwartz,
alias John Pepper; Ewert, former German Reichstag deputy, alias
572 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Braun ; Michailov, personal representative of Stalin, alias Williams ;
and Gerhart Eisler, alias Edwards, alias Hans Berger, and so forth.
All the foregoing were representatives of the Communist Interna-
tional, and there were others who were instructors in charge of various
departments who are too numerous to remember.
THE FORMAL SETUP
The formal set-up through which the Communist Parties were
united into a world organization during the time of my stay in Moscow
has since (1943) been abolished. At that time, there were periodical
congresses of the Communist International, to which all parties sent
delegates, and those congresses were authorized to proclaim to the
world changes in policy or strategy.
The congresses elected formally an Executive Committee of the
Communist International, which in turn elected a Presidium, and the
various departments then functioned formally under the direction
of the Executive Committee elected by the congresses, and the Pre-
sidium.
In the early stages of the Communist movement, such a set-up was
necessary to make the Communist Parties and their rank and file
members believe that there was a certain amount of democracy in the
set-up and that they had certain rights through which to have their
say as to the policies and affairs of the world-wide organization.
The real facts, of course, were that the Communist Parties outside
of Russia, as Krivitzky in his testimony before the House Committee
on Un-American Activities aptly expressed it, were "nothing but
branches of the Russian Communist Party," and upon Stalin's en-
trenchment in power, he more and more disregarded the formal set-up
and, through his special batteries of secretaries on foreign affairs,
ran the Communist International organization through the basic de-
partments above enumerated as a mere instrument of the Russian
Communist Party and Stalin's Political Bureau.
Thus, when the formal set-up was abolished in 1943, the real
machinery through which these parties were operated remained intact,
and the only thing that was changed was that the direction and con-
trol from Moscow over these parties was more concealed than before.
The essential machinery of controlling and directing these parties
continued to operate because, without it, it would have been impossible
to run such a complex world-wide organization.
Stalin had long before tired of the formalities under the old set-up
which he considered a waste of time, and the war gave him a welcome
occasion to do away with it. Today more than ever before the
Communist Parties outside of Russia are mere rubber stamps with
not a vestige of power regarding final decisions.
THE COMINFORM
With the termination of the war and the instigation of what has
become known as the cold war by Russia, there arose the necessity
for some sort of agency or committee through which policy could be
proclaimed, in a form separate from the Soviet Government, as a
megaphone for Stalin's decisions. Hence, the Cominform was created.
The Cominform is nothing but an arbitrary executive set-up, a
COMMrNlST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 573
public mouthpiece under which to carry on, and nothing more. The
Communist Parties have no formal rights whatsoever under this
set-up. It should be obvious to anyone that without the basic ma-
chinery of its departments, and so forth, operating directly under
Moscow direction, the Cominform would be entirely inefl'ective.
It is the continuation of this basic machinery that explains the
sudden creation of new international fronts by the Comnumists, and
continued unified direction of the complex Conuuunist activities in the
United States and all other countries.
THE WORKINGS OF STALIN's MIND
The problem of understanding Russian policy has become greatly
simplified since Stalin became absolute dictator of Russia and the
sole authority for international Communist policies.
Due to the fractional fighting existing in the American Communist
Party and other parties, in which he was deeply involved, I had an
opportunity, during my stay in Moscow, to study Stalin's techniques.
During hearings of the House Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties several j'ears ago, Jay Lovestone, former secretary of the Com-
munist Party of the United States, introduced certain documents re-
lating to the factional fight in the American Communist Party, and
the role that Joseph Stalin and Molotov directly plaj^ed in the dicta-
tion of policy to the Communist Party of the United States at that
time.
Knowing as I do what actually took place behind the scenes, which
was the very opposite of what Stalin then proclaimed in his speeches
in a closed meeting of Comintern leaders on this matter, the following
pattern as to Stalin's methods emerges.
Stalin prepares with great thoroughness the strategy and technique
which he wishes to use to defeat an enemy, whether the enemy be
inside of the Communist movement or outside. Thus, Stalin, in fact,
directed from the beginning the factional fight against the majority
led by Lovestone in the American Communist Party. I know that
from first-hand knowledge, because I was one of the principals through
which this fight was carried out. Stalin, of course, remained entirely
in the background in this phase of the fight, officially denied all
participation in it, and operated through others.
This part of his method is usually very thoroughly worked out and
is very important. He plans all the organizational fights against an
opponent. But even more interesting and just as thoroughly worked
out is the method used to fool the enemy, whether inside or outside of
the Communist movement, and to conceal Stalin's real intentions.
In this particular instance, the factional fight in the American
Communist Party was covertly directed by Stalin. The objective was
to make Lovestone and his followers believe that Stalin had not taken
sides and that Lovestone could get a fair break if he did the right thing
V>y Stalin. Stalin did. in fact, through the Comintern leaders, pro-
claim the policy against all factionalism, and for peace and harmony
in the Communist Party, and so forth.
On the biibis of that. Staliri persuaded Lovestone and the majority
of the members of the Central Committee to come to Moscow to settle
the controversy, and I, as the representative of the opposing faction,
in order to more thoroughly fool Lovestone, received sealed instruc-
574 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
tions to desist from any activities whatsoever against tlie majority of
the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the United States
while, behind the scenes, through Losovsky, I was told just the
contrary.
Although I was not supposed to carry on factional activities, I could
make any statement on the situation in the American Communist
Party, and that statement would be circulated to all the leaders of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of Russia and leaders of
the Communist Parties who were or happened to be in Moscow.
Throughout all the phases from beginning to end, sometimes several
times a week, I would meet with leaders of the Russian Communist
Party, either individually or in groups, and discuss how to cnrry on
this light. Yet, officially, I was not supposed to do it, and the Russian
leaders claimed they were not interested or taking part in the fight.
Mr. Walter. Who were the members of the Communist Party who
accompanied you to Moscow at that time ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. Jay Lo vest one, Benjamin Gitlow, Max Bedacht,
William Z. Foster, Alexander Bittelman, Ella Bloor, and there were a
few others.
Mr. Wood. Was one Ben Davis ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. No ; he was not in that deep at that time.
This campaign of peace and harmony was effective in undermining
Lovestone's influence in the party. In fact, it confused Lovestone him-
self and trapped him completely.
It is fully in keeping with this method of operation of Stalin that
in the present international situation a tremendous campaign can be
initiated by Moscow for peace and harmony between the United States
and Russia, and that the Soviet diplomacy itself may initiate moves
in that direction, while Stalin thoroughly prepares for war and works
on an actual timetable for it.
STALIN, MASTER OF THE METHOD OF INDIRECTION
Stalin gained control of the Communist Party itself by a pattern of
operation as illustrated here. While he was pretending harmony at
that time, he, as general secretary of the party, was taking over gen-
erally the outlying portions of the Communist Party organization
inside of Russia by appointing his representatives to strategic posi-
tions without any noise, in Siberia, in the Ukraine, in the Caucasian
territories. He does not like a frontal fight until he is ready for it.
Then when he had, without much noise, displaced those with whom
there was disagreement, he tied up the bag and took over Moscow and
Leningrad, which were the two main centers of the party organization.
By the time the more brilliant theorists of the Russian Communist
Party woke up it was too late. He is a master politician in the method
of indirection.
I might digress by saying if you look over the present world scene
you will see that the main Russian effort is concentrated in the periph-
ery. For 20 years Stalin worked on the conquest of China, and at this
time he is coming to the result he expected to get before this time.
The chances of taking the smaller spots, of course, are practically
certain. For the same reason, the Comintern machine has been con-
centrating for many, many years in South America. There is more
Communist activity in South America today than in the United States,
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 575
and it operates in a more exclusive situation. His idea is, to judge
by the pattern he has followed so many times in and out of the Com-
munist movement, to surround the main centers and make sure that
when lie makes the final attack he has enough to attack with.
Stalin always differentiates between what is proclaimed publicly
and the actual intentions. The public policy is intended always to
confuse and soften up the enemy while he sharpens his dagger for the
kill.
The most fatal error for any nation to make when dealing with
Stalin is to take his official attitudes at face value. My experience,
and I believe the experience of many others familiar with the opera-
tions of Stalin, indicates that the only gauge for Stalin's policy is to
study all the manifestations of what is actually being done under his
direction, and disregard completely what is proclaimed publicly.
"Wliat he proclaims publicly is usually the exact opposite of what he
aims to do, or has but a slight resemblance to it. His method is to
make the other fellow believe that he is going to do something that
he does not intend to do, and to surprise him by what he actually does.
Those who analyze Russian policy solely on the basis of what is
officially proclaimed by Stalin and his agencies are bound to mislead
their nations, make the wrong appraisals, and fall into a trap.
In conclusion, may I anticipate a question as to why I left the
Communist movement.
I left this movement, which I served from idealistic convictions for
15 years, because during my stay in Russia I had seen things like the
arrest en masse of Connnunist Party members who disagreed with
the top leaders — their arrest, their internment, imprisonment, and
some were even executed. As a Communist, which I then still was
ideologically, I could not stomach the idea of a Communist state using
police methods to eliminate disagreements inside the Communist
movement. And I was even then already suspicious that this thing
may develop into a m^onster which will devour its own children, having
been prior to that a student of the French Revolution, where some-
thing similar happened ; those that made the revolution later on exe-
cuted each other.
But I still was hoping that maybe I was mistaken, because when
one spends 15 years in a movement, that is a great chunk out of your
life, and, well, the old ego was in my way of admitting that I perhaps
was wrong all that time.
But when the years rolled on and I saw what I had then begun to
suspect, namely, that this thing called communism had become a
monster that indeed was devouring its own children, and on a greater
scale than the French Revolution did, and that unlike the French
Revolution, which eventually did evolve into a democracy, the result
in this case was cut out by the type of regime Stalin had inside of
Russia and outside in tlie regime implanted in the Communist Party.
I came to the conclusion I was completely and totally wrong in the
idealism which I had attributed to this movement, and that this
movement had become the worst despotism in the experience of man,
something that had I known its true course, I would never have joined,
I would always have fought, and now that I, like a great many other
people, see what this thing really is, I am willing to do what I can
to prevent its success and to prevent the annihilation of all freedom
and all liberty and all rights that the individual acquired as the result
576 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
of democracy, by this movement gaining its objective and succeeding.
I am interested in its defeat. That is why I appear before this
committee.
Mr. Wood. Any questions, Mr. Walter?
Mr. Walter. In your judgment, is it possible that the Communist
organization as constituted in Russia today could ever function in a
democratic manner?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. No. That is entirely impossible. The Communist
Party in Russia itself has been reduced. It is a gigantic operation of
secret police under the personal and direct control of Stalin.
Mr. Walter. In other words, it is despotism of the worst sort ?
Mr. Kornfeder. Of the very worst sort.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Harrison.
Mr. Harrison. When did you leave Russia?
Mr. Kornfeder. In 1930.
Mr. Harrison. When ?
Mr. Kornfeder. In 1930.
Mr. Harrison. And you haven't been back since?
Mr. Kornfeder. That is right.
Mr. Harrison. When did you sever your connection with the Com-
munist Party ?
Mr. Kornfeder. In 1934.
Mr. Harrison. Four years after you left Russia ?
Mr. Kornfeder. Yes, sir.
Mr. Harrison. What were the circumstances under which you
severed your connection with the Communist Party?
Mr. Kornfeder. The formal circumstances were that I got into a
disagreement with them on one of their frequent switches of party line
dictated from Moscow. That was the formal reason. Of course,
if I had still been a theoretical follower, I would not have quit on
account of a switch in party line. But the thing I was explaining be-
fore was already working on my mind for sometime, as to whether
this whole regime is worth to be supported at all by anybody.
Mr. Harrison. Do you recall the particular switch in party policy
that was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak, with you ?
Mr. Kornfeder. Well, it was a switch where they were organizing
unions outside of the American Federation of Labor, known as the
Trade Union Unity League, for many years, and then they switched
their policy to dissolve these unions and incorporate them into the
American Federation of Labor for a new drive of infiltration inside
the American Federation of Labor. Later on they switched again
and pulled all the unions out of the American Federation of Labor,
and got them into the newly formed CIO.
Mr. Harrison. Why did you object to taking the unions into the
American Federation of Labor ?
Mr. Kornfeder. I was of the opinion then that the great mass pro-
duction industries could not be organized through the crafts of the
American Federation of Labor, but could be organized only through a
mass type of organization such as an industrial union.
Since I was not a director in an office, but one who was in the field,
I could not face the same type of workers and sell them one bill of
goods today, and when Moscow changed the policy, face the same
workers and sell them another bill of goods, without seeming to be
a fraud.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 577
Mr. Harrison. You had done it before, had you not?
Mr. KoRNTEDER. Not as directly as that. It is one thing to manipu-
late party members. It is another thing to do the same thing before
masses of people who don't know your ultimate theories, but who only
know yesterday you sold them one bill of goods and today you are try-
ing to sell them another bill of goods.
If I had yet been at that time convinced that the thing as a
whole was worth while, I may have followed that, too, but since it
came as it did when I was already very much in doubt on the thing as
a whole, I could not take this.
Mr. Harrison. How did you sever your connection? When they
issued this new directive, then what did you do?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. Well, if I had been as clear as I am now, I would
have taken all the independent unions out of the control of the Com-
munist Party and just kept them under my influence, which I could
have done, because the party groups in those unions at that time were
very weak ; but although I was already thoroughly convinced that the
Russian regime had gone to pot as far as my idealistic concepts were
concerned, I still remained an adherent of the Communist philosophy
as a general philosophy. That muddled me up sufficiently to prevent
me from making an effort to keep control of the unions I had organized
personally in Cleveland and other cities in Ohio, I just quit the party
and turned over whatever there was under my control at that time.
Mr. Harrison. What line of endeavor did you go into then ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. I wcut back to New York and really began reading,
not just Communist literature, but all the critics who have criticized
Marxism and Leninism and everything from 50 to 100 years back.
That is all I did for months, just to try to find what is basically wrong
in this whole concept of dictatorship, either by a class or by a party or
by a state, and so forth. I had to do that, because although I am a
practical organizer, I am also a theoretical type, and unless I solved
the problem in theory, I could not satisfy myself. That is what I
did for a whole year, nothing but read, and read, and read.
Mr. Harrison. What was your means of support during that period ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. Well, at that time there was the depression, so I
got on the WPA . The party did as much as they could, through their
connections, to make it difficult for me, but they had then a sewing
project which was controlled by the International Ladies' Garment
Workers, and that organization was not sympathetic to the Commu-
nists even then, and so through them I got on that project and earned
a living at the same time.
Mr. Harrison. What is your occupation now ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. Right now? Well, I write; I do considerable
speaking ; and I am interested, together with others, in the promotion
of some new inventions in which we expect to make good and get some
income from.
Mr. Harrison. When did you first start exposing these matters
about which you have told us today?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. My first effort at fighting them systematically
started in 1936. I, together with a number of others who had been
in the party, and some who were formerly I WW's, rigged up a labor
forum at Fourteenth Street and Second Avenue in New York, right
under the nose of party headquarters, and ran that forum for 2 years,
and every session of the forum was quite a blast against them. At
578 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
that time there were quite a few workers out of work who used to
hang out at Union Square. They would jam the hall every time.
We did a pretty good job, I would say.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Kornfeder, I believe that one section of the Russian
Constitution of the Soviet Union is in the following language :
The most active and most politically conscious citizens in the ranks of the
working class and other strata of toilers shall unite in the Communist Party of
the Soviet Union * * * which shall be the directive body of all organizations
and societies of toilers, both public and governmental.
You have testified that people from outside of Russia who attended
those various schools located in Moscow which you have enumerated
Were, after a period of about 90 days, transferred into membership of
the Russian Communist Party ?
Mr. Kornfeder. That is right.
Mr. Wood. When a man gets transferred into the Russian Commu-
nist Party, how far away is he from being a citizen of the Russian
Government under this provision of tlie Russian Constitution ?
Mr. Kornfeder. As a member of the Russian Communist Party he
would become not only a citizen but a privileged citizen.
Mr. Wood. And impliedly he renounces citizenship in any other
country by accepting membership in the Russian Commmiist Party,
does he not ?
Mr. Kornfeder. I don't know of any procedure which would make
that effective formally. I have no idea what law stood behind it.
Mr. Wood. Under the Russian Constitution it says :
The most active and most politically conscious citizens in the ranks of the
working class and other strata of toilers shall unite in the Communist Party
of the Soviet Union * * « which shall be the directive body of all organiza-
tions and societies of toilers, both public and governmental.
When a man gets into that party, isn't Russia the country to which
he, of necessity, owes allegiance, under this provision of the constitu-
tion of the Soviet Government ?
Mr. Kornfeder. It could be so interpreted. In fact, in actuality,
that is the way it would work out. However, none of us were ever
offered any formal citizenship papers or went through any formality
of being inducted into formal citizenship.
Mr. Wood. I understand that, but I am speaking now of a person
who accepted membership in the Russian Communist Party. Does
he thereby become a part of the Russian Government under the pro-
vision of the Russian Constitution which I have read ?
Mr. Kornfeder. In effect he does ; yes.
Mr. Wood. I believe you testified in your estimation there are in
the United States today from 900 to 1,200 citizens of this country
who have been inducted into the Communist Party of Russia ?
Mr. Kornfeder. Yes. They are either citizens or residents who
have become citizens.
Mr. Wood. By the way, have you any evidence that the structure
you have outlined here today is still maintained in Russia ?
Mr. Kornfeder. Oh, yes. I think that is obvious on the face of it.
When they carried through the elimination of Earl Browder, who
theretofore had been unanimously acclaimed as the party leader and
who was overnight eliminated, such miracles don't happen among in-
dividuals free to choose leaders. It only happens when the machine
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 579
from Moscow decided to eliminate him and the machine here carried
out that decision.
Mr. Wood. From all visible evidence today, you would give it as
your opinion that the structure you have outlined in your testimony
still obtains ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. Definitely so.
Mr. Wood. Have you ever had any dealings, directly or indirectly,,
with a party by the name of Harry Bridges ?
JNIr. KoRNFEDER. I kuew of Bridges. I knew he was in the party.
I don't recall having met him at party meetings. I knew he was in
the party from Earl Browder himself and from William F. Dunne,
who was then a member of the central committee, and other members
high up in the party. Yes; I am sure he was a member of the Com-
munist Party at least since 1934.
Mr. Wood. Would you therefore say that the Russian Government
had any interest in the present situation that exists in Hawaii in the
strike that is said to have been led b}^ Bridges in that Territory?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. I am sure they have. I think it is one of their
great experiments in the art of how to use a union like the dockers to
horn in and take over places like Hawaii. Of course that, I believe,
is fitted into the whole of their strategy in the Pacific. I may call
your attention at this time that in the last 10 years or so the Commu-
nist Party has concentrated big effort in building their organization
on the West Coast and in the Northwest.
Mr. Wood. Isn't that also true in the Canal Zone?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. Ycs. From what I understand of their strategic
scheme, this fits into their plans of future attacks by developing or-
ganizations in those territories through which they may decide to
attack.
Mr. Wood. Through the strategy you have outlined of isolating and
surrounding before they take over?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. That is right. I could illustrate that. You see,
their whole pattern of operation, including the one we just discussed,
fits into techniques of political warfare as taught in the Moscow train-
ing colleges.
Mr. Wood. I have one further question. If I intrude too much in
your private affairs you may refuse to answer. Have you a family ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. Ycs. I lost my family on this. I could not get
them out of Russia. My wife and hoj followed me to Russia 6 months
after I went there, and I could never get them out. The boy was born
in New York. My wife was Polish. I haven't heard anything of
them since 1936. I made efforts to get them out of Russia. I asked
the State Department for help. They did instruct the Ambassador
to inquire into the situation, but the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs
gave the Ambassador the stock answer they give in many other similar
cases, that they cannot find the whereabouts of the persons complained
about. And, well, that is where that ended. Of course they knew
their whereabouts perfectly well, because my wife was also a member
by transfer of the Russian Communist Party, and they keep a very
thorough roster of where all their members are at any particular time.
Mr. Wood. Any further questions, gentlemen ?
Mr. Tavenner. I have no further questions.
580 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Mr. Wood. On behalf of the committee I desire to express the very
deep appreciation we feel for your coming here and giving us the very
voluminous information you have given us.
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Chairman, I will want to call this witness back
during these hearings for specific information.
Mr. Wood. Very well. You may be temporarily excused subject
to any arrangement for further testimony which you and counsel may
have.
(Witness temporarily excused.)
Mr. Tavenner. Call Mr. Charles Copeland, please.
Mr. Wood. Will you raise your right hand. You solemnly swear
the testimony you will give this subcommittee will be tlie truth, the
whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God ?
Mr. Copeland. I do.
Mr. Wood. Have a seat and give the reporter your full name and
address.
TESTIMONY OP CHARLES EDWARD COPELAND, ACCOMPANIED BY
HIS COUNSEL, BENJAMIN C. SIGAL
Mr. Copeland. Charles Edward Copeland, 303 Silvis vStreet, Jean-
nette. Pa.
Mr. Wood. Are you accompanied by counsel ?
Mr. Copeland. Yes, sir.
Mr. Wood. Will your counsel please identify himself for the record.
Mr. Sigal, My name is Benjamin C. Sigal, 1025 Vermont Avenue
NW., Washington, D. C.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Sigal, I believe this is your first appearance before
this committee since I have been presiding?
Mr. Sigal. Yes, sir.
Mr. Wood. Statements to the contrary you may have heard notwith-
standing, you have permission to confer with your client at any time
during the progress of his testimony and give him any legal advice you
may desire without consulting the Chair.
Mr. Sigal. Thank you.
Mr. Tavenner. You are Mr. Charles Copeland ?
Mr. Copeland. I am.
Mr. Tavenner. When and where were you born ?
Mr. Copeland. Jeannette, Pa., November 1910.
Mr. Tavenner. Are you appearing before the committee by virtue
of a subpena served upon you by the United States marshal for the
western district of Pennsylvania?
Mr. Copeland. I am.
Mr. Tavenner. What is your present occupation ?
Mr. Copeland. Business agent of Local 601, United Electrical, Ra-
dio and Machine Workers of America, CIO.
Mr. Tavenner. Briefly, what are the duties of the business agent
for a local union ?
Mr. Copeland. I am responsible for all communications coming
into the local and going out to the plant's grievance committee.
Mr. Ta\'enner. Mr. Chairman, I think the record should show that
the committee has received a telegram from Messrs. Thomas J. Fitz-
patrick, Frank Panzino, Thomas Quinn, and Eobert Whisner, who
have been subpenaed to appear before the committee on Wednesday
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 581
of this week. In this telegram it is alleged that these hearings will
interfere with wage negotiations by local 601 with the Westinghouse
Electric Co.
Mr. Copeland, the committee does not wish to interfere, directly or
indirectly, with wage negotiations between any employers and em-
ployees, so I want to ask you the question whether, in your opinion,
these hearings will in any way interfere with wage negotiations now
being carried on between your union and the Westinghouse Co.?
Mr. Copeland. My personal opinion is that I don't think the hear-
ings will in any way hurt negotiations. I think, first of all, we can
prove that the overwhelming majority of members of our local union
and of UE are good and true American workers. I believe the hear-
ings will help negotiations. I believe they will help negotiations
because I believe, in order to get support for wage demands from
the Westinghouse Co., we have to get the support of the public, and
I believe we can get the support of the public if the general public
does not believe that the situation is influenced in any manner by the
Communist Party.
Mr. Tavenner. Let me ask you several questions about the present
situation of the wage negotiations that were referred to.
Mr. Wood. Would you mind at this point ascertaining what, if any,
connection he has with these wage negotiations ?
Mr. Tavenner. Are you a member of the negotiating committee
yourself?
Mr. Copeland. I am a member of the national negotiating commit-
tee, representing our local union.
Mr. Tavenner. Are any of the four persons whose names were
signed to the telegram members of the negotiating committee ?
Mr. Copeland. Wliat are those names again ?
Mr. Tavenner. Thomas J. Fitzpatrick, Frank Panzino, Thomas
Quinn, and Robert Whisner.
Mr. Copeland. None of them are members of the national negotiat-
ing committee representing local 601.
Mr. Tavenner. Are negotiations in fact being conducted at this
time between your union and the Westinghouse Co. ?
Mr. Copeland. There are no negotiations at the present time. Ne-
gotiations were broken off on July 21, I believe. I believe they were
broken off on July 21. We are not now in negotiation with the com-
pany on a national contract.
Mr. Wood. You mean there have been no negotiations since the
breaking off?
Mr. Copeland. We have had no negotiations with the company on a
national contract on wages since July 21.
Mr. TA^^NNER. Has any date been set or discussed for the resump-
tion of negotiations ?
Mr. Copeland. To the best of my knowledge, no; there has been
no date set.
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Copeland, what organizations or industries does
local 601 cover?
Mr. Copeland. Local 601 represents the check employees in the
Westinghouse Electric Corp. plants located in East Pittsburgh, Net-
tles, Homewood, Linhart, Copper Mill Works, and Trafford, and we
represent a small paint factory located in Manor.
582 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Mr. Tavenner. For how long a period of time have you been em-
ployed by the Westinghouse Co. ? ^ <• -.r^
Mr. CoPELAND. I have worked for the Westinghouse Co. for 19
years, m • ^ ^ u-
Mr. Ta^tinner. And, having stated that you are an othcial holdmg
an important position on the committee of the union, I presume you
are a member of that local 601 ?
Mr. CoPELAND. I am.
Mr. Tavenner. How long have you been a member of that union?
Mr. CoPELAND. Since the early part of 1937.
Mr. Tavenner. How long have you been the busmess representa-
tive or agent of local 601 ?
Mr. CoPELAND.^ I was elected in December 1917, when the elections
took place, and I have served in that capacity since then. I believe
we were sworn in on January 10, 1948.
Mr. Tavenner. Have you ever held any other office in local 601 or
in any other union?
Mr. CoPELAND. I have held other offices in local 601.
Mr. Tavenner. Will you describe them?
Mr. Copeland. I was division steward of the Trafford division in
1943, 1944, and 1945, which gave me a position and a vote on the
executive board of the local union. And I was a subdivision steward of
the local, representing a portion of the division, from 1938 to 1943.
Mr. Tavenner. In addition to the position of division steward en-
titling you to vote on the executive board, what other duties or
privileges does it carry ?
Mr. Copeland. We present the grievances of all people in that par-
ticular area.
Mr. Tavenner. Is the position of a division steward considered an
important position in the union set-up ?
Mr. Copeland. I would say yes, sir.
Mr. Tavenner. Does a person occupying that position have a right
to either recommend or actually pass upon the discharge of personnel
of the union under any circumstances ?
Mr. Copeland. Well, a division steward of the union could prefer
charges, I suppose, against an individual member, but he would have to
do it in line with the constitutional provisions. They would have to
set up a trial and so on.
Mr. Walter. He would not have any more authority than any other
member ?
Mr. Copeland. No, sir.
Mr. Tavenner. Just what are the duties of a steward ?
Mr. Copeland. A division steward represents a division. The com-
pany has its plants broken down into operating divisions for motors,
generators, plastics, foundries, and so on, and the division steward
is in charge of the entire division. They have that broken down into
subdivisions, and they have subdivision stewards who represent a
portion of that division.
Mr. Tavenner. Have you held any other positions than business
agent and division steward in your union ?
Mr. Copeland. And subdivision steward.
Mr. Tavenner. Have you ever been a member of the Communist
Party of the United States?
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 583
Mr. CopELAND. I signed an application blank to join the Communist
Party in 1943, while attending the national convention of the UE.
Mr. Ta\t.nner. Do you recall the circumstances under which you
joined the Communist Party?
Mr. CoPELAND. I signed an application blank in a restaurant in New
York City.
Mr. Tavenner. What was the name of the individual who recruited
you into the party ?
Mr. CoPELAND.' Frank Nestler, who was editor of the Union Gen-
erator.
Mr. Tavt.nner. Wlio was he ?
Mr. CoPEi.AND. Franlv Nestler, N-e-s-t-1-e-r.
Mr. Tavenner. What position did Frank Nestler hold in the union,
if any?
Mr, Copeland. He was chairman of the generator committee and
editor of the local union paper.
Mr. Tavenner. And a member of local 601?
Mr. Copeland. Sure.
Mr. Tami^nner. And it was local union 601 which was the publisher
of the Union Generator ?
Mr. Copeland. That is the official publication of our union.
Mr. Tavenner. Is Frank Nestler still editor of the Union Generator?
Mr. Copeland. No. He left and went to school and later returned
and was laid off.
Mr. Tavenner. How long ago ?
Mr. Copeland. I would say about 3 years.
Mr. Tavenner. Did you ever attend any Communist Party
meetings ?
Mr. Copeland. I have.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you recall how many and the various locations
where the meetings were held ?
Mr. Copeland. I attended about three meetings of the party, which
were open meetings to the public, in the Penn-Lincoln Hotel, at Wil-
kinsburg; and I attended one meeting in Serbian Hall in Wilmerding,
which was exclusively for party members.
Mr. Tavenner. Were other members of local 601 present at those
meetings ?
Mr, Copeland. Yes,
Mr, Tavenner, Can you name some among those present ?
Mr. Copeland. Myself; Frank Nestler; Thomas J. Fitzpatrick;
Frank Panzino; and Robert Whisner.
Mr. Tavenner. Are any of these persons presently associated with
local 601?
Mr. Copeland. Yes, sir.
Mr. Tavenner. Which ones?
Mr. Copeland, Thomas J. Fitzpatrick, who is chief steward of thg
local ; and Frank Panzino, who is assistant chief steward of the local ;
and Robert Whisner, who is subdivision steward of the local union.
Mr. Tavenner. What are the duties of tlie chief stewnrd of the
union, as distinguished from division or subdivision steward?
Mr. Copeland. The chief steward is elected at the beginning of the
year by the stewards' council, and has the function of handling
grievances.
584 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Mr. Tavbnner. Do any of those persons hold any other office in local
601?
Mr. CoPELAND. None that I know of.
Mr. Tavenner. Is any one of those persons a member of the execu-
tive board ?
Mr. CoPELAND. The chairman of the stewards' council is a member
of the plant's grievance committee and a member of the executive
board with a vote.
Mr. Tavenner. That would apply to Thomas J. Fitzpatrick?
Mr. CoPELAND. Yes.
Mr. Tavenner. Were the officers you named elected or appointed to
the various offices you have mentioned ?
Mr. CoPELAND. Elected.
Mr. Tavenner. By whom ?
Mr. CoPELAND. Robert Whisner was elected by the people in his
respective subdivision. Thomas J. Fitzpatrick and Frank Panzino
would have been elected by the stewards' council.
Mr. Tavenner. What is the stewards' council ?
Mr. CoPELAND. It is broken down into operating divisions and oper-
ating sections, and each section has a representative, and so many sec-
tions have a subdivision representative.
Mr. Tavenner. How many compose the council body?
Mr. CoPELAND. I would say approximately 425 to 450.
Mr. Tavenner. Would you say that the stewards' council in your
local is under Communist control ?
Mr. CoPELAND. No, sir.
Mr. Tavenner. Are any of its officers Communists ?
Mr. CoPELAND. I would say Fitzpatrick and Panzino are party
members.
Mr. Wood. Would you mind indicating what you base that opinion
on?
Mr. CoPELAND. I attended party meetings they were at.
Mr. Wood. Communist Party meetings?
Mr. CoPELAND. Yes.
Mr. Wood. At that time you were affiliated with the Communist
Party ?
Mr. CoPELAND. That is right.
Mr. Tavenner. In other words, you base your statement upon the
fact you attended Communist Party meetings with them ?
Mr. CoPELAND. That is correct.
Mr. Tavenner. Has either Thomas J. Fitzpatrick or Frank Pan-
zino stated to you at any time that they are members of the Communist
Party?
Mr. Copeland. They have never come out and said they were mem-
bers of the Communist Party, although it was understood. There
was no discussion of it. They knew I was at meetings with them.
Mr. TA^^NNER. Have you disassociated yourself from all Com-
munist Party activities?
Mr. Copeland. I have.
Mr. Tavenner. How long ago ?
Mr. Copeland. 1945.
Mr. Tavenner. 1945 ?
Mr. Copeland. Yes, sir.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 585
Mr. Tavenner. Do you consider that your local 601 is presently
under Communist control or domination ?
Mr. CoPELiVND. I don't think the local union is under Communist
control, but they are influential in getting some of their people to
meetings. I don't think anybody is too successful in getting too many
members out, but they are interested in getting most of their members
out at every meeting.
Mr. Tavenner. Are the Communist members very active in the
affairs of the local union ?
Mr. CoPELAND. Well, the ones I know never miss a membership
meeting.
Mr. Tavenner. With regard to the executive board of your union,
is it, to your knowledge, under Comnuniist control ^
Mr. CoPELAND. It is not.
Mr. Ta^tsnner. Do you know of any persons who are on the execu-
tive board who are active in Communist Party affairs ?
Mr. CoPELAND. I would say Thomas J. Fitzpatrick is active in Com-
munist affairs. I say that because recently the executive board of the
union, at the request of the veterans' committee, put a picket line
around Carnegie Hall in north-side Pittsburgh, and Fitzpatrick
crashed through the picket line to attend a mass meeting of the Com-
munist Party.
Mr. Tavenner. Was your local 601 ever dominated by the Com-
munist Party as far as you know ?
Mr. CoPELAND. I would say at one time the executive board of the
union had quite a few members who were members of the Communist
Party or closely associated with the party.
Mr. Ta\'enner. What is your judgment of the number of members,
at the present time, of local 601 who are either Communists or follow
the Communist Party line?
Mr. CoPELAND. I would say that approximately 200 or 300 mem-
bers are active supporters of the left-wing element in the union. They
may have other members who they convince, or fool, or what have you ?
Mr. Wood. You say 200 or 300?
Mr. CoPELAND. 200 or 300 active supporters.
Mr, Wood. How many members have you ?
Mr. CoPELAND. The local has approximately 13,500 members.
Mr. Tavenner. Has the Communist Party, in your opinion, pro-
vided any assistance in the advancement of the American labor move-
ment?
Mr. Copeland. I believe that the Communist Party is not the solu-
tion to the economic problems of the people in this country, and I cer-
tainly don't think they have added anything to the strength of organ-
ized labor. I believe the unions not under the influence of the Com-
munist Part}' are getting along better with the public. I don't believe
any organization that has to hide behind closed doors or pull down
window blinds is helpful to anything that would be constructive. I
believe the unions would be more constructive without the help of the
Communist Party.
Mr. Walter. Have you noticed any difference in the attitude of
the Communist members of your union since the recent edict of the
Pope?
95613— 49— pt. 1 4
586 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Mr. CoPELAND. That is a pretty hard question to answer. It is
pretty hard to tell whether members of our local union are Catholics
or Protestants, other than those I come in close contact with who talk
the situation over.
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Wood, the chairman of this committee, has
introduced a bill in the House of Representatives which would make
it an offense for individuals employed on national defense contracts —
(1) to become or remain a member of, or aflBliated with, the Communist Party of
the United States of America, or any organization which shall have been desig-
nated as subversive by the Attorney General; (2) to contribute funds or services
to the Communist Party of the United States of America or to any organization
which shall have been designated as subversive by the Attorney General; or (3)
to advise, counsel, or urge any other individual employed in connection with the
performance of any national-defense contract to perform, or to omit to perform,
any act if such act or omission would constitute a violation of clause (1) or (2)
of this section.
Are you familiar in a general way with that bill ?
Mr. CoPELAND. No ; I am not familiar with it.
Mr. Tavenner. From my reading of it to you, would you care to
express an opinion or make any comments as to whether or not it
would act as a deterrent to those unions who have been contributing
to organizations declared subversive by the Attorney General ?
(Witness confers with counsel.)
Mr. CoPELAND. I would prefer to study the bill before answering
that question. We have a legislative committee of the local who
handles that.
Mr. Tavenner. I have no further questions, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Walter.
Mr. Walter. No questions.
Mr. WocD. Mr. Harrison.
Mr, Harrison. No questions.
Mr. Wood. Let me question you on the first paragraph of the pro-
posed legislation, which makes it unlawful for any person engaged
on national defense projects to be a Communist. Do you think it is
conducive to the security of this country to have a known Communist
employed on a national defense project, where, in many instances, the
work is of a restricted and highly confidential nature ? Do you think
it would be conducive to the security of this country to have that kind
of person employed on such a project?
Mr. CoPELAND. My personal opinion, not representing the local
Mr. Wood. That is what I am asking for.
Mr. Copeland. I would say if they have definite proof a person is
a member of the Communist Party, I would give different considera-
tion to it, but in a large organization like local 601, a lot of people may
follow Communist Party lines who are not members of the Communist
Party. They might support them at a membership meeting not know-
ing what they are supporting. So, to me, to refuse to give the Westing-
house Co. orders because we may say there is a person there affiliated
with the Communist Party, is unjust to the majority of the people
in the local union. As a member of the union I wouldn't have any
say as to whether or not a member of the union was or was not a mem-
ber of the Communist Party. I wouldn't have any say on that.
Mr. Wood. I didn't mean I wanted you to pass on that question.
We are assuming proof would have to be submitted in court demon-
strating that he was a Communist.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 587
Mr. CopELAND. If we have adequate laws — I believe myself a Com-
munist is a traitor to the country, but I believe if I, as a leader, would
be found guilty of a crime, I don't think my children or neighbors
should be deprived of working at Westinghouse because I am guilty
of the crime. I think I should be punished and not the people I
represent.
Mr. Wood. The bill provides that it shall be unlawful for a per-
son engaged on any national defense project to become or remain a
member of the Communist Party.
Mr. CoPELAND. I believe in 1943, 1944, and 1945 the contract between
the company and the United Electrical, Kadio and Machine Workers
of America had a stipulation that no member should work for the
company who was a member of the German Bund. That is not in the
contract now.
Mr. Wood. Irrespective of contractual provisions, do you think it
would be dangerous for companies having contracts of a confidential
nature to employ Communists?
Mr. CoPELAND. I believe Communists are traitors to the country
and I don't believe they should work on secret work.
Mr. Wood. Thank you very much for your presence and for the
very forthright manner in which you have answered these questions.
Mr. Russell. I have one further question : Wlien were you first
interviewed by an agent of this committee, the approximate date?
Mr. Copeland. First of all I was subpenaed to appear before the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration Service, by a gentle-
man by the name of Benson, I believe, to testify against a former
member of the union who was up for deportation. If I am not mis-
taken, Alvin Stokes, who is a colored man, first talked to me around
February or March of this year, somewhere around that time. I can't
tie the dates down, but it was around about the time they were pick-
ing up Steve Nelson for questioning.
Mr. Tavenner. Did you know Alvin Stokes as an investigator for
this committee?
Mr. Copeland. I knew he was an investigator for this committee
whenever he appeared in our local union office.
Mr. Russell. That is all.
Mr. Wood. Thank you very much.
Mr. Tavenner. William Henry Peeler.
Mr. Wood. Will you raise your right hand, please, Mr. Peeler ? Do
you solemnly swear the testimony you are about to give this subcom-
mittee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so
help you God?
Mr. Peeler. I do.
TESTIMONY OF WILLIAM HENRY PEELEE, ACCOMPANIED BY HIS
COUNSEL, BENJAMIN C. SIGAL
Mr. Wood. Give the reporter your name and address.
Mr. Peeler. William Henry Peeler.
Mr. Wood. Your address.
Mr. Peeler. 3140 Cordelle Place, Pittsburgh, Pa.
Mr. Wood. Are you represented by counsel here ?
Mr. Peeler. Yes.
Mr. Wood. The same counsel as the last witness ?
588 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Mr. Peeler. Yes.
Mi\ Tavenner. You are William Henry Peeler ?
Mr. Peeler. I am.
Mr. Tavenner. Are you appearing before this committee in com-
pliance with a subpena served upon you under date of August 3, 1949?
Mr. Peeler. Yes.
Mr. Tavenner. Are you a member of Local 601 of the United Elec-
trical, Radio, aii'^ Machine Workers of America, CIO?
Mr. Peeler. Y s, sir.
Mr. TAVENNEit. How long have you been a member of local 601^
Mr. Peeler. Since the first day I was hired, 8i/^ years ago.
Mr. Tavenner. What positions have you held as an officer of local
601?
Mr. Peeler. We consider it not as officers. I have been a section
steward, and a division steward, which gives you a vote on the execu-
tive board.
Mr. Tavenner. How long have you held such a position?
Mr. Peeler. I held the section steward job 1 year, and this is my
third year as an executive board member.
Mr. Tavenner. Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the
Communist Party of the United States?
Mr. Peeler. Definitely not.
Mr. Tavenner. Have you ever been approached to join the Com-
munist Party or a Communist-affiliated organization ?
Mr. Peeler. A number of times.
Mr. Tavenner. Will you tell us about that ?
Mr. Peeler. I was first approached about 1945 by a girl named
Dorothy Faraday, who claimed she worked as a secretary in the dis-
trict. That I can't verify.
Mr. Tavenner. As secretary of what?
Mr. Peeler. Of the UE.
Mr. Tavenner. Then what occurred ? Just tell the whole story.
Mr. Peeler. I met her on the street and we began to talk. She was
telling about the great things that happened to my race in America. I
said : "Evidently you don't know much about it." I said : "Let's go
to my house and we will talk it over."
She came to my house and talked to me and my wife, and we got
friendly, and after that she made weekly visits, and every time she
came she would bring a card and say: "What about signing it?"
I said no, I would not sign it. She brought numerous leaflets and
pamphlets and Russian literature. I didn't seem to get of it what
she thought I should, so I never became a Communist Party member.
Mr. Tavenner. Were you approached by others to become a Com-
munist Party member?
Mr. Peeler. Yes, at the office.
Mr. Tavenner. What office ?
Mr. Peeler. Local 601.
Mr. Tavenner. Tell us about that.
Mr. Peeler. A fellow there told me he wanted to talk to me. His
name was Nathan Alberts. He approached me.
Mr. Tavenner. Did you join?
Mr. Peeler. No, sir.
Mr. Tavenner. Tell us what occurred on that occasion.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 589
Mr. Peeler. Well, I was lined up with the rank-and-file group,
and he came up one evening and said he would like to talk to me.
He said what a bunch of reactionary boys I was associated with, and
some of the things they had done to Negro members of the local.
I said I didn't see where anybody had done anything in particular
for the Negro members in the plant. He said Fitzpatrick and Pan-
zino had done a terrific job in getting Negro girls in the plant. I
said, "What happened?" He said, "We got them in there." I said,
"Is that part of your job?" He said, "Yes." I said, "I don't see that
that is anything to yell about." He said, "Why not join the party?
We are the only ones doing anything for your race." I said, "Name
somebody in your party who has done something for my race."
He mentioned the incident of the Negro girls, which I mentioned
before, plus a couple of other incidents where Panzino and Tom Quinn
had done something for them and somebody had cut out their pic-
tures and called them a " lover," and so forth.
I said, "Anybody else?"
He named one or two others that I know and some I didn't know. I
continued listening to him, and a couple times I rode home with him,
and I asked him what he did in the evenings, and he said he did his
party work. I asked him if he didn't do anything but work, and he
said no, that he wanted to help make this a better world. I said
I didn't care to have it a better world in that way. I didn't join.
Mr. Tavenner. In his discussions with you, did he mention other
members of the Communist Party in the union ?
Mr. Peeler. He mentioned the two who had done the most, as he
claimed, to help the Negi-o people. They were Tom Fitzpatrick and
Frank Panzino. Another day he mentioned Ella Pinzzo, a girl in the
union office.
Mr. Tavenner. Anyone else that you recall?
Mr. Peeler. I mentioned one to him, but he only knew him casually.
Mr. Tavenner. Have you seen evidence of Communist control of
local 601, or efforts to control it, since you have been an officer of this
local?
Mr. Peeler. Yes ; I have seen evidence, some of it before my time
and some since I was in the local. I noticed in particular, in going
back through some of the minutes, we find the attitude of the executive
board when it was controlled by what we call our progressives, the
stand they took of calling Roosevelt a warmonger, and they went on
record as absolutely against war when the Stalin-Hitler pact was in
effect, and you can see in the same book the opposite stand after Hitler
attacked Russia. You can see where we have made contributions to
the American Slav Congress, the American Comnrittee for Protection
of Foreign Born, the American Youth Congress, and various others.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you recall the size of the contributions made?
Mr. Peeler. They range from $10 and $25.
Mr. Tavenner. How frequently were those contributions made?
Mr. Peeler. I looked through the minutes and saw where some years
back they were made almost weekly, $10 or $25.
Mr. Tavenner. Did you see evidence of communistic direction and
influence in the calling of strikes and in the conduct of strikes?
Mr. Peeler. Well, yes; one in particular. We had quite a bit of
work moved from the main plant down to Beaver.
590 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Mr. Tavenner. Wliat do you mean by Beaver ?
Mr, Peeler. The Beaver plant.
Mr. Tavenner. Of Westinghouse ?
Mr. Peeler. Yes. So when this work was moved down they wrote
a grievance that the people from our plant who would be affected by
the removal of that work should go with the work. In the meantime,
at the Beaver plant they hired new people, and conditions got pretty
bad because they couldn't get recognition, although most everybody
down there had signed with UE. Westinghouse adhered to the Taft-
Hartley law and refused to recognize them because they did not sign
non-Communist affidavits.
We went down to check after we learned two fellows had been fired,
alid we. couldn't even get into the plant. We made a complete com-
mittee report, and in that report I came to a standstill because I said,
"The only thing holding this situation up is the fact we can't get
recognition."
Mr. Tavenner. And you could not get recognition because of the
failure to sign the non-Communist affidavits ?
Mr. Peeler. That is right. So at that time I made a motion that
we instruct our international officers to sign non-Communist — I beg
pardon, I did not say "non-Communist," I said "necessary" — affidavits,
so that we might gain recognition in new plants.
Tom Fitzpatrick was president of the district at that time, and he
vigorously protested.
I said, "This is the only solution I know of. Do you have any
suggestion ?"
He said, "Sure. They can strike."
Isaid,"Wliatfor?"
He said, "Well, they can strike."
I said, "And get what?"
; He said, "Well, it will be a moral victory, anyway."
' Mr. TA-\rENNER. Did a strike result ?
Mr. Peeler. Yes ; they had a strike, and our local contributed $2,000
down and $800 a week, I believe that is the exact amount. A number
of other locals contributed, and the district contributed, and I assume
the international union contributed, even though we knew the strike
could not be won.
Mr. Wood. What year was that ?
Mr. Peeler. About 1947, August 1947.
Mr. Harrison. It was since the Taft-Hartley law went on the books,
so it would be last year or the year before,
Mr, Tavenner, What did it cost your local union to engage in
that fight?
Mr. Peeler. All told, with lost time and everything, sending com-
mittees down and donations, I would estimate around $16,000.
Mr. Harrison. How long were you out of work ?
Mr. Peeler. It was at Beaver. I was on the committee to go down
and help. But they removed me from the committee after I made
that motion,
Mr, Tavenner, Do you know Hugh Harley ?
Mr. Peeler. I do.
Mr. Tavenner. Does he have any connection with local 601 ?
Mr. Peeler. He is an international representative, supposedly sent
down to work on our plant guard situation.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 591
Mr. Tavenner. That is all, Mr. Chairman.
• Mr. Wood. Do I understand you to say that after you made the mo-
tion tliat the officers conform to the law with respect to recognition,
that you were removed from the committee?
Mr. Peeler. That is correct.
Mr. Wood. At whose suggestion?
Mr. Peeler. A fellow named Harper. I was on two committees,
and he made a motion to abolish both committees, and then they re-
formed both committees.
]\Ir. Wood. And left you off both of them ?
Mr. Peeler. That is right.
INIr. Wood. Any questions?
Mr. Harrison. Who is Russ Nixon ?
Mv. Peeler. He is an international representative, as I understand,
the Washington representative.
Mr. Harrison. Of your union?
Mr. Peeler. Of UE.
Mr. Harrison. He is not connected with local 601?
JNIr. Peeler. On paper, no ; but he has quite a bit of contact up there.
Mr. Harrison. He seems to have a good deal to say about its affairs.
Mr. Peeler. You can say that again.
Mr. Ta\^nner. AVhen were you first interviewed by an investiga-
tor of this committee relating to this matter ?
Mr. Peeler. I was interviewed — I can tell you the exact date, it
was the 27th of February.
Mr. Tavenner. Of what year?
Mr. Peeler. This year. I might add I was called by a reporter from
the Pittsburgh Courier, and he said : "A man was up checking our
papers, and he wants to see you, and it is imperative that you call
him." So I called and met Stokes.
Mr. Ta\'enner. That is all.
Mr. Wood. Thank you very much.
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Seese.
Mr. Wood. You solemnly swear the testimony you will give this
subcommittee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth, so help you God ?
Mr. Seese. I do.
TESTIMONY OF BLAIR SEESE, ACCOMPANIED BY HIS COUNSEL,
BENJAMIN C. SIGAL
Mr. Wood. Will you give the reporter your full name and address,
please ?
Mr. Seese. Blair Seese, 154 Central Avenue, Turtle Creek, Pa.
Mr. Wood. Is Mr. Sigal appearing with you also as your counsel?
Mr. Seese. Yes.
Mr. Wood. You may confer with him at any time you desire during
the course of your testimony.
Mr. Seese. Thank you.
Mr. Tavenner. You are Mr. Blair Seese ?
Mr. Seese. That is correct.
Mr. Tavenner. When and where were you born ?
Mr. Seese. I was born in a town of Dunlo, Cambria County, Pa.,
October 18, 1911.
592 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Mr. Tavenner. Where are you now employed ?
Mr. Seese, Westinghoiise Electric Corp., at the East Pittsburgh
plant.
Mr. Tavenner. Are you appearing before this committee by virtue
of a subpena served upon you on August 3, 1949 ?
Mr. Seese. I certainly am.
Mr. Tavenner. Are you a member of local 601 of the United Elec-
trical, Eadio and Machine Workers of America, CIO ?
Mr. Seese. I am .
Mr. Tavenner. How long have you been a member of that local ^
Mr. Seese. Since the early part of 1937.
Mr. Tavenner. Have you held any office within local 601 ?
Mr. Seese. I have. I held the office of division steward in 1944 and
1945.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you at the present time hold any elective or ap-
pointive office in local 601 ?
Mr. Seese. I hold a position on the sick and accident committee of
local 601, which is appointed by the executive board with the approval
of the membership.
Mr. Tavenner. Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of
the Communist Party?
Mr. Seese. At one time I signed an application blank, but I never
attended any meetings or took any part whatever in any of the activi-
ties.
Mr. Tavenner. Who requested you to sign an application for mem-
bership in the Communist Party ?
Mr. Seese. Marshall Docherty and Joe Godfrey.
Mr. Tavenner. Were they officers in local 601?
Mr. Seese. Marshall Docherty was an officer in the local at the time,
but Joe Godfrey was not. He was known as an organizer for the
Communist Party.
Mr. Tavenner. Will you relate to the committee the circumstances
which led to your being requested to join the Communist Party ?
Mr. Seese. Well, the thing had been suggested to me at various
times, but on this particular occasion I was approached by Mr.
Docherty on the street in front of the union office and he asked me to
go to the bar on the corner, that he had something to discuss with me.
We entered the bar and went into the back room, and this Joe God-
frey was present, and it was suggested that I sign an application blank,
and they gave me reasons that by signing an application blank I could
help myself politically within the local and within the labor move-
ment.
Mr. Ta^^nner. That you could advance yourself within the labor
movement by becoming a member of the Communist Party ?
Mr. Seese. That is about it, and the fact that their program was
the program for tlie working classes of people.
Mr. Tavenner. Let me ask you this : You stated, I believe, that
you did not attend any meetings ?
Mr. Seese. That is correct.
Mr. Tavenner, Did you pay dues at any time after that ?
Mr. Seese. No, sir.
Mr. Tavenner. Approximately what was the date that you signed
the application ; the year, I mean ?
Mr. Seese. The year was 1944.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 593
Mr. Tav'enner. Have you in any way participated in Communist
Party movements or activities since that time ?
Mr. Seese. None whatsoever,
Mr. Tavenner. Do you consider yourself in any way a member of
or afFdiated with the Connnunist Party at this time?
Mr. Seese. I do not ; absohitely.
Mr. Tavenner. At the time of your election to the executive board,
was the executive board composed largely of members recognized as
being members of the Communist Party ?
Mr. Seese. Well, there were people on the board at that time, in
fact, the greater majority of them, who were identified from time to
time as being party members, but I had no proof of any kind to sub-
stantiate that when I was elected to the executive board. But from
resolutions that were passed from time to time, I could see an inkling
of influence from Communist Party activities.
Mr. Tavenner. During that period of time, was Mr. Thomas J.
Fitzpatrick a member of the executive board ?
Mr. Seese. He was.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you of your own personal knowledge know
whether he was a member of the Communist Party ?
Mr. Seese. Other than the fact that when I was in Tom Fitzpat-
rick's presence privately he had admitted to me that he was a member
of the party.
Mr. Ta\'enner. Have you observed the affairs or activities of the
Communist Party being carried out in any of the offices of local 601 ?
Mr. Seese. The only activities I coiild say were conducted in and
around the office were to the extent of leaflets showing up in the union
office, party-line propaganda signed by the East Pittsburgh Commu-
nist Party, and the fact there are people there who make solicitation
of union members to subscribe to the Daily Worker and the Sunday
Worker.
Mr. Tavenner. Has any action been taken in your union with re-
gard to the Communists now on trial in New York?
Mr. Seese. I do know of petitions that were circulated to the mem-
bership in support of the 12 Communists who are on trial in New
York.
Mr. Tavenner. Were any members of the union taking part in that
solicitation ?
Mr. Seese. Yes.
Mr. Tavenner. Who were they ?
Mr. Seese. They were various members at the plant who circulated
the petition.
Mr. Tavenner. You spoke of the solicitation of subscriptions to the
Daily Worker and the Sunday Worker. Was that solicitation done by
a member of local 601 ?
Mr. Seese. Yes, sir.
Mr. Ta\tenner. Who was that ?
Mr. Seese. Nathan Alberts, I know, makes solicitations, because he
attempted to solicit me to take the Daily Worker.
Mr. Tavenner. What about the Communist Party literature; do
you receive it yourself through the mail ?
Mr. Seese. I have and I still do at times ?
Mr. Tavenner. Do other members of the union also receive it?
594 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Mr. Seese. I know other members in the local who have Communist
literature mailed to their homes.
Mr. Tavenner. Are those persons, persons who are not members of
the Communist Party, as well as those who are members ?
Mr. Seese. Yes, sir.
Mr. Tavenner. What explanation is there for members of the union
who are not members of the Communist Party receiving this liter-
ature ?
Mr. Seese. I have no explanation for it other than the fact that it
seems evident that by some means the membership lists of the stew-
ards' council are available to the Communist Party, because if there
are errors in the addresses of any union members, the same errors
are made in sending out the Communist literature.
Mr. Tavenner. No further questions.
Mr, Wood. Mr. Walter.
Mr. Walter. No questions.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Harrison.
Mr. Harrison. Russ Nixon is not a member of local 601?
Mr. Seese. No, sir.
Mr. Harrison. Is he a member of the Communist Party ?
Mr. Seese. I could not answer that question.
Mr, Harrison. Does he have access to your membership lists ?
Mr. Seese. The only way he would would be as a representative of
the international office.
Mr. Harrison. He seems to be powerfully excited about these hear-
ings, and I wondered why.
Mr. Seese. I noticed the release he made to the papers.
Mr. Harrison. I wondered if you could enlighten me on that subject.
Mr. Seese. No, sir ; I couldn't.
Mr. Wood. Thank you very much.
I would like you to comment on how you feel about a man who is
a known member of the Communist Party being employed on a na-
tional-defense project involving work of a confidential and secret
character ?
Mr, Seese, If your question is in regard to the Wood bill, I have
no knowledge of the bill whatever and I wouldn't care to make an
answer.
Mr. Wood. I am not asking about a particular bill. I am asking how
you feel about whether or not it is in the best interest of the security of
this Nation to have known Communists employed in defense plants
handling highly secretive work.
Mr. Seese. I don't think it would be good.
Mr. Wood. Thank you.
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Stanley Glass.
Mr. Wood. You solemnly swear the testimony you will give this sub-
committee shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth, so help you God ?
Mr. Glass. I do.
Mr. Wood. Have a seat, please. Is Mr. Sigal here representing you
also ?
Mr. Glass, That is correct.
Mr. Wood. You have the privilege of conferring with him at any
time you desire.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 595
TESTIMONY OF STANLEY E. GLASS, ACCOMPANIED BY HIS COUNSEL,
BENJAMIN C. SIGAL
Mr. Wood, Give your full name and address to the reporter.
Mr. Glass. Stanley E. Glass, 5800 Munhall Road, Pittsburgh, Pa.
Mr. Tavenner. When and where were you born?
Mr. Glass. Charleston, W. Va.
Mr. Tavenner. When?
Mr. Glass. May 24, 1912.
Mr. Tavenner. Are you appearing before this committee in com-
pliance with a subpena served on you August 3, 1919 ?
Mr. Glass. That is correct; I am appearing here having been sum-
moned by the United States marshal. I personally am opposed to any
outside investigation of trade unions or local unions. I will put it
this way, that I think the people within the local should work it out
through the democratic processes, and that is the chief reason we
opposed the Taft-Hartley Act.
Mr. Tavenner. Wlien were you first interviewed by an investigator
of this committee?
Mr. Glass. To the best of my knowledge it was in April 1949.
Mr. Tavenner. Are you a member of Local 601 of the United Elec-
trical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, CIO ?
Mr. Glass. I am.
Mr. Tavenner. How long have you been a member of that local
No. 601 ?
Mr. Glass. Since November 1940.
Mr. Tavenner. What positions have you held as an officer of local
No. 601 ?
Mr. Glass. Steward, subdivision steward, and at present recording
secretary.
Mr. Tavenner. Are you now or have you ever been a member of the
Communist Party of the United States ?
Mr. Glass. I have not.
Mr. Tavenner. Or have you ever had any Communist affiliations?
Mr. Glass. I have not.
Mr. Tavenner. Have you ever been approached to join the Com-
munist Party or any Communist-affiliated associations?
Mr. Glass. I have.
Mr. Tavenner. Wlien was that ?
Mr. Glass. In 1941 or 1942 I was working in a shop close to Thomas
Fitzpatrick. I was taking him home one night and he told me what
a marvelous country Soviet Russia was, and asked me to join the party.
Mr. Tavenner. Wliat party ?
Mr. Glass. The Communist Party.
Mr. Tavenner. How long have you been recording secretary of
local No. 601 ?
Mr. Glass. I was elected in the last month of 1948.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you consider local 601 to be under Communist
Party domination ?
Mr. Glass. Absolutely not ; but I think definitely the international is.
Mr. Harrison. You think definitely what?
Mr. Glass. That local 601 is not under the control of the Com-
munist Party at this time, but the international is. I might add my
reason for making that statement is that the right-wing forces at the
596 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF . LABOR UNIONS
present time are in office in local 601; we are attempting to carry
out an American program, and we are hampered by Communist or-
ganizers; there are about 12 in the valley. And I have just noticed
that there is a possibility of the international going out of the CIO
and affiliating with the World Federation of Trade Unions. Also,
the recent copy of the Canadian UE News also carried an article along
that line, and that George Harris, secretary of the Canadian UE, dis-
trict 5, has attended the international congress in Italy.
Mr. Tavenner. Then you are of the opinion that the parent or-
ganization is endeavoring to exert communistic influences on your
organization ?
Mr. Glass. That is right.
Mr. Harrison. Don't you think the Federal Government has some
interest in something such as that, involving a great union such as UE
and a great industry ?
Mr. Glass. I think the Federal Government should spend their
basic time in education along the lines of what communism means
and the purposes of the Communist Party and so on.
Mr, Walter. Mr. Glass, this may not be in point, but in your wage
negotiations do the local people conduct the negotiations, or are the
negotiations conducted by representatives of the union sent from
other places ?
Mr. Glass. In the UE different branches of the industry, such as the
electrical chain, have various companies represented. For instance,
the Westmghouse chain. In order to negotiate with the Westing-
house chain there is a Westinghouse conference board set up in
the union. Our local has four elected national negotiators to attend
the national Westinghouse board. They set the pattern of nego-
tiations.
Mr. Tavenner. What is the district council ?
Mr. Glass. The district council is a division of the international
union which takes in a territory of the international. For instance,
I happen to c- !e under district 6, which takes in tlie western
Pennsylvania and West Virginia section.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you consider that the district council under
which you come, district 6, is under Communist Party domination?
Mr. Glass. Absolutely.
Mr. Tavenner. How long has the Communist Party dominated
this district council ?
Mr. Glass. I would say from 1939 the Communist Party has had
strict control over district 6.
Mr. Tavenner. With regard to your local union itself, that is,
local 601, has there been a time when it was under Communist Party
domination?
Mr. Glass. Local 601 itself at various times is controlled by the
Communist Party. It is done through their methods of approach.
They themselves attempt to keep the membership away and keep in
control a small centralized caucus of the progTessive forces. All peo-
ple who are members of the progressive forces are not members of the
Communist Party, but thev sure follow the Commimist line.
Mr. Wood. And they are well organized and very active?
Mr. Glass. That is right.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 597
Mr. Tavenner. Have there been any resolutions passed by local
No. 601 that would follow the Communist Party line?
Mr. Glass. Yes; there have been.
Mr. Tavenner. Will you elaborate?
Mr. Glass. A resolution supporting the ILI) — International Labor
Defense — which is a (-ommunist-front orgaiiization. A resolution
calling Roosevelt a warmonger.
Mr. Tavenner. What about a resolution in regard to Harry
Bridges?
Mr. Glass. There is one supporting Harry Bridges.
Mr. Tavenner. Was there one supporting American-Soviet friend-
ship?
Mr. Glass. American-Soviet friendship, absolutely.
Mr. Ta\"enner. American Youth Congress?
Mr. Glass. American Youth Congress.
Mr. Tavenner. League Against War and Fascism ?
Mr. Glass. Yes.
Mr. Tavenner. No further questions, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Walter.
Mr. Waltor. No questions.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Harrison?
Mr. Harrison. No questions.
Mr. Wood. Let me interrogate you on your views with reference
to the employment of known Communists in defense plants where
strategic material is being handled or highly secretive work is being
performed. Do you think it is conducive to the best interests of the
security of this Nation to do that ?
Mr. Glass. A lot of the people w^ho are members of the Communist
Party are innocent workers. A lot of people sign cards.
Mr. Wood. I concede they have been, but I don't concede they are
now, with the information being disseminated. I think most people
understand, don't you ?
Mr. Glass. I am following the CIO policy as far as the Wood bill
is concerned, and I can't make a statement on that.
Mr. Wood. Do you think it is conducive to the best interests of the
country to employ known Communists in defense plants where stra-
tegic material of a highly secretive nature is being handled ?
Mr. Glass. In case of war, in case of emergency, I would say
"Yes," but I think
Mr. Wood. We are still at war, you know.
Mr. Glass. At war with the Communists ?
Mr. Wood. No. We are still at war. There has been no treaty.
I don't believe fundamentally you and I are far apart in our thinking.
Thank you. We appreciate your coming here.
The committee stands adjourned until tomorrow morning at 10 : 30.
(Whereupon, at 4 :45 p. m., an adjournment was taken until 10 : 30
a. m., Wednesday, August 10, 1949.)
HEARINGS REGARDINa COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF
LABOR UNIONS-PART 1
(Local 601, United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of
America, CIO, Pittsburgh, Pa.)
WEI)NESI>AY, AUGUST 10, 1949
United States House of Representatives,
Subcommittee of the Committee
ON Un-American Activities,
Washington, D. C.
A subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities met,
pursuant to call, at 11 : 20 a. m. in room 226, Old House Office Build-
ing, Hon. John S. Wood (chairman) presiding.
Committee members present: Representatives John S. Wood (chair-
man). Burr P. Harrison, John McSweeney, Morgan M. Moulder, and
Harold H. Velde.
Staff members present : Frank S. Tavenner, Jr., counsel ; Louis
J. Russell, senior investigator ; Donald T. Appell, investigator ; John
W. Carrington, clerk; Benjamin Manclel, director of research; and
A. S. Poore, editor.
Mr. Wood. Let the committee be in order.
Let the record show that this hearing is being conducted by a
subcommittee, designated by the chairman, composed of Mr. Moulder
and Mr. Wood.
Mr. Tavenner. We are ready to proceed.
Mr. Wood. Proceed.
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Thomas Fitzpatrick.
Mr. Wood. You solemnly swear the evidence you will give this sub-
committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth, so help you God?
Mr. Fitzpatrick. I do.
TESTIMONY OF THOMAS J. FITZPATRICK
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Fitzpatrick, are you represented by counsel?
Mr. Fitzpatrick. One is available if I need him.
Mr. Tavenner. I just want to inform you that you are entitled
to have counsel present with you if you desire.
Mr. Fitzpatrick. Yes. I noticed that yesterday, and I think it
is a very good procedure of the committee.
Mr. Wood. You understand, also, that you are at liberty to confer
with your counsel at any time you desire during the progress of your
testimony.
Mr. Fitzpatrick. Thank you, sir.
599
600 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Mr. Tavenner. Will you state your full name and present address
for the record ?
Mr. FiTzpATRicK. Thomas J. Fitzpatrick, 915 Ramsey St., Wilkins-
bur^, Pa.
Mr. Tavenner. When and where were you born ?
Mr. Fitzpatrick. January 15, 1903, Lord, Md.
Mr. Tavenner. Are you appearing before the committee in accord-
ance with a subpena served upon you August 3, 1949 ?
Mr. FnzpATRicK. Yes, sir.
Mr. Tavenner. What is your present employment?
Mr. Fitzpatrick. I am a drill press operator in the company, work-
ing for the Westinghouse Corporation in East Pittsburgh, 26 years'
continuous service there. At the present time I am on a full-
time union job, chief steward of the local union.
Mr. Tavenner. Is that local union 601 ?
Mr. Fitzpatrick. That is right, sir.
Mr. Tavenner. Please outline in chronological order the offices you
have held in local 601 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine
Workers of America, CIO.
(Representative McSweeney enters.)
Mr. Fitzpatrick. In 1937 or 1938, or both, I was a section steward.
In 1940 and 1941, 1 think — this is tl^e best of my recollection, I,(fflnld be
off a year — I was division steward of the generator divisiqjifi 43
and 1944 I was the president of local 601. In 1945 I w£i($(ri ivci, >..ief
steward for part of the j^ear, and the last part of the year I was elected
president of district 6. I was the president of district 6 until January
of 1948, at which time I resigned as president of district 6 and was
elected president of local 601 at that time and went back to 601.
In 1949 I was elected chief steward in local 601.
Mr. Chairman, I noticed that you permitted some preliminary re-
marks here yesterday, and I know it is the hope of a lot of people that
this committee will conduct itself in a more democratic manner than it
did in the past, so I would like to respectfully request an opportunity
to make a few preliminary remarks.
Mr. Wood. The Chair will give you that opportunity, but not on
the theory of the previous conduct of this committee. If you would
like to make a few preliminary remarks, the Chair will permit you to
do so, provided it is not too lengthy, because the House meets in 30
minutes.
Mr. Fitzpatrick. I will not filibuster.
In the hearings yesterday, us four fellows who were subpenaed to
appear today were smeared and charged with certain things, and Mr.
Tavenner here read part of a telegram that we sent to you. He either
consciously or unconsciously only mentioned part of that telegram.
He failed to mention the fact
Mr. Wood. If you take exception to the part he did put in, I will in-
struct that the entire telegram be put in the record.
(The telegram referred to is as follows :)
[Western Union telegram]
August 7, 1949.
Representative John S. Wood,
Chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee,
Washington, D. C.
House Un-American Activities Committee has subpenaed us four members of
Westinghouse East Pittsburgh Local 601, UE-CIO to testify next Wednesday in
hearing on ridiculous charges of an ACTU priest and his followers. It i» vital you
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 601
understand that important elections in which we are all candidates will take
place in our local union next week and that our union is in the midst of wage
negotiations with the Westinghouse Electric Co. We strongly protest interfer-
ence by your committee in our internal union affairs. We would like to point
out that this investigation has been instigated by an ACTU priest, Rev. Charles
Owen Rice, and his right-wing followers in UB local 601 in order to maintain
his grasp on the local. We are informed they contacted someone on your com-
mittee and had hearings set and subpeiias issued without the knowledge of most
members of the committee. W'e protest this scandalous use of the Un-American
Activities Committee to interfere in the internal affairs of our union and aid the
Westinghouse Co. in our negotiations. Now that your committee has the facts,
we respectfully request that you abandon the hearings and take steps to see
that your coraraittoe is never again used in this manner.
Thomas J. Fitzpatbick,
Frank Panzino,
Thomas Quinn,
Robert Whisner.
Mr. FiTZPATRiCK. With the understanding it is in the record, I
would like to make this brief statement. We are in the midst of an
election in 601 and us four fellows subpenaed for today are candidates
in that election.
It was also stated here that these hearings do not harm the negotia-
tions between the UE and the Westinghouse Co. The witness who is
national negotiator from our local either does not know his job or he
has d'-'"''^iprately misstated the facts. The negotiations started in Juno
or 1 went on for several weeks and were recessed. Negotia-
tion . .io cyt concluded and they are subject to being reopened by the
union, at tJie call of the union.
It has come to my attention that in the last day, since these hearings
became an issue, one of the vice presidents of the Westinghouse Co.
has sent out a letter to all Westinghouse employees stating that irre-
gardless of what any other corporation does, Westinghouse is going
to grant no wage increase this year.
Mr. Wood. You are commenting on the contents of a letter. Do you
have a copy of the letter?
Mr. FiTZPATRiCK. I do not have it here.
Mr. Wood. Would you like to insert that letter in the record?
Mr. FiTZPATRiCK. We will get it in your hands.
Mr. Wood. Let the record show that the witness desires to incorpo-
i-ate in the record at this point tlie letter to which he has referred, from
an officer of the Westinghouse Co."
Mr. FiTZPATRiCK. I would like to state that Mr. Kussell went to
great length yesterday to explain that these hearings were not hurried-
ly called, but that certain people had been contacted last April. That
is true, and there was certainly time to call the hearings earlier or
wait until after our election.
It is a known fact that these hearings were rigged by a Jesuit
priest, Charles Owen Rice, and two members of the ACTU — Associa-
tion of Catholic Trades Unionists — who contacted a member of this
committee, Congressman Walter, and he referred them, I believe, to
Mr. Russell, and from that point on these hearings were rigged.
I wish to state, Mr. Chairman, that the prestige of this conmiittee
lias been lowered plenty, whenever they stoop to interfere in local
union elections at the behest of a sectarian religious organization.
" Witness failed to supply letter.
95613— 49— pt. 1 5
602 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
I would like to say that I think this committee has not only mis-
used, but abused, the power granted to it by the Congress ; and I say
they have prostituted the prestige of the wliole Congress by permit-
ting this committee to be used in such manner. I would think an in-
vestigation of this action by this committee would be in order, be-
cause if there is any kind of un-American activity, I would put it in
that category where a respected committee of this Congress stoops to
be used by a sectarian religious organization
Mr. Wood. We don't want any argument from you. We will listen
to any statement of fact you desire to make.
Mr. FiTZPATRicK. It interferes in a factional squabble in a local
union. I think this conunittee was originated for a little better work
than that.
Already these hearings bring the phony charge that it is defense
work and secret work that is the basis of this investigation. The testi-
mony yesterday gave the lie to that thing. The witnesses all agreed
that local 601 is not dominated by Communists; therefore it gives a
lie to this whole charge. We have a half million people in UE, and
they have all been smeared by this sort of thing. All you have to do
IS look at the record of UE, before the war and during the war and
after the war, and you will find that not one case of sabotage or dis-
loyalty has been brought forth and proven. In addition to that, you
know, and everyone else knows, that everybody on secret work has
prior approval of the Army or Navy or proper agency of the Govern-
ment.
I would like to say, Mr. Chairman, in conclusion, that I appear here
today with certain people questioning my loyalty to this country. Two
kinds of people meet before your committee, people who say they are
good Americans, and people who act like good Americans.
I will answer all honest questions put to me, but I have no intention
of joining with the people who seek to destroy the Constitution of
this country, whether witnesses or anybody else. To me, the Consti-
tution of this country is not a scrap of paper. It is something to be
maintained. I have two sons. I want them to have the same freedoms
and rights that I have enjoyed. If I can't leave this world a better
world, I want to leave it just as good.
The Constitution of this country provides certain protection for
minorities and gives the privilege for people to speak and think as they
feel that they should and want to. It also gives the privilege that
people can have opinions or beliefs that may be unpopular. In my
opinion, it gives them the right to hold those opinions secret if they
so desire. This is a protection of the first amendinent to the Constitu-
tion, supplemented by the fifth amendment.
Mr. Wood. What is ?
Mr. FiTZPATRicK. The right of the people guaranteed by the Consti-
tution.
Mr. Wood. We are not trying to invade anybody's rights.
Mr. FITZPATRICK. I have read the hearings of this committee for
some time, and some are pretty low.
Mr. Wood. Do you have any questions you want to ask, Mr. Taven-
ner?
Mr. TA^^N]s^ER. Yes, sir.
Mr. Fitzpatrick, are you now or have you ever been a member of the
Communist Party ?
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 603
Mr. FiTZPATRiCK. Mr. Chairman, in my opening remarks 1 gave
quite a bit of my attitude on this question. I say that this committee
has no right to pry into my mind.
Mr. Wood. We are not concerned with your opinion of the connnit-
tee. We have asked you a simple question. Do you want to answer it
or not?
Mr. FiTZPATRiCK. I am answering it, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Wood. We don't have the time for a long dissertation.
Mr, FiTZPATRiCK. I think I have a right to answer it in my own way.
Mr. AVooD. The question can be answered "Yes" or "No," or you can
decline to answer it.
Mr. FiTZPATRiCK. Being just a common workingman, I will answer
it in my own words. I don't think the committee has the right to dic-
tate the choice of my words in answering it.
JNIr. Wood. We are not attempting to do that. You may answer or
decline to answer.
Mr. FiTZPATRiCK. I will answer the question. The Constitution
guarantees the right to me and every other citizen to have beliefs,
^^■hether they are jjopular or unpopular, and to keep them to themselves
if they see fit, and I have no intention of being a party to weakening
or destrojnng that protection in the Constitution. I feel when I take
this position that I am one of the real Americans, and not like some
of the phonies who appear here.
Mr. Wood. Now will you answer the question ?
Mr. FiTZPATRiCK. I have answered the question.
Mr. Wood. It is not an answer at all.
Mr. FiTZPATRiCK. That is my answer.
Mr. Wood. Do you mean that is the only answer you are going to
give?
Mr. FiTZPATRiCK. That is the way it has to be answered, according
to my conscience.
Mr. Wood. Is that the only answer you will give to the question
whether you are now or ever have been a member of the Communist
Party?
i\Ir. FiTZPATRiCK. That is the only answer I can conscientiously
give you.
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Fitzpatrick, you were present yesterday dur-
ing the testimony here. You heard it stated under oath that you ai-e
a member of the Communist Party. Do you deny that accusation ?
Mr. FiTZPATRiCK. The answer to my previous question is the answer
to this question. I have no intention of permitting this committee
to abridge my constitutional rights on political opinions, associations,
who I work with, who I meet with, what I read or think, or anything
of that kind.
Mr. Tavenner. So, in other words, you refuse to answer the ques-
tion ?
Mr. FiTZPATRiCK. I don't refuse to answer the question. I have
answered the question.
Mr. Tavenner. I think, out of fairness, I should read this affidavit
to you, which I am going to introduce in evidence. It is an affidavit by
Clarence D. Copeland, in which he says —
that he knows Thomas J. Fitzpatrick, chief steward of local No. 601, Uniterl
Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America; that he has known the
said Thomas J. Fitzpatrick for approximately the last 10 years; that sometime
604 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
during the fall of the year 1943, the said Thomas J. Fitzpatrick gave to and re-
quested that he, the said Clarence D. Copeland, sign an application and join
the Communist Party; that he, the said Clarence D. Copeland, refused to sign
said application or join the said Communist Party.
Did you request that he sign an application, as stated in that affi-
davit?
Mr. Fitzpatrick. Mr. Chairman, if you want to ask me questions
about my actions of loyalty, question my loyalty, you have a right to
do so and I will answer them. So far as my political opinions, I have
stated my position on that. You are asking the same question in a
different way. But if my memory is right, there was no such thing
as a Communist Party when that affidavit is supposed to have been.
Mr. Tavenner. In 1943 ?
Mr. Fitzpatrick. I think it was the Communist Political Associ-
ution then. . .
Mr. Tavenner. Was it the Communist Political Association, then,
that you tried to get him to join ?
Mr. Fitzpatrick, I have given you my answer.
Mr. Tavenner. In other words, you will not answer whether you
did or did not solicit his membership ?
Mr. Fitzpatrick. I will not talk about my association and ^actions
with people who I know, what I did, or anything else. I don't think
it reflects on mv lovaltv or disloyalty or anything else.
Mr. Wood. Mr. 'Fitzpatrick, did you ever at any time during the
year 1943 furnish an application blank and request Clarence D. Cope-
land to sign and make application for membership in the Communist
Political Association or the Communist Party ?
Mr. Fitzpatrick. Mr. Chairman, do I have to give you my answer
again ? ^ n i ^u •
Mr. Wood. I just want to know whether you did that one thing.
Mr. Fitzpatrick. I say if I did or if I did not, regardless of what
I did, it is not the affair of this committee to pry into this kind of
action. .
Mr. Wood. And for that reason do you decline to answer the ques-
tion? « 1 /-( • i.- ii
Mr. Fitzpatrick. I stand on the protection of the Constitution, the
first and fifth amendments.
Mr. Wood. And for those reasons decline to answer the question
further ?
Mr. Fitzpatrick. I have answered the question.
Mr. Wood. I say, do you decline to answer it further ?
Mr. Fitzpatrick. I have no further comment on it.
Mr. Tavenner. Were you a candidate for political office in the
Stateof Pennsylvania in 1948?
Mr. Fitzpatrick. Mr. Chairman, for the reasons that I have re-
iterated more than once, this committee is going beyond its powers
to delve into any of my political activities, thoughts, or anything else.
Mr. Tavenner. Were you endorsed for office by the Daily Worker,
the official organ of the Communist Party?
Mr. Fitzpatrick. I don't know who endorsed who or for what. 1
have no intention of discussing my political actions or activities with
this committee, for the reasons that I liave stated before.
Mr. Tavenner. The Daily Worker of May 25, 1947, pase 9. lists
you as the signer of a statement sponsored by the Civil Rights Congress
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 605
opposing attacks on communism. Are you a member of the Civil
Rights Congress?
Mr. FiTZPATRiCK. I say it is no affair of the committee what organi-
zations I belong to. The previous answer applies.
Mr. Tavenner. In other words, Mr. Fitzpatrick, you are just deter-
mined that you are not going to give any testimony before this com-
mittee regarding Communist activities in union 601?
Mr. Fitzpatrick. I came here and I stated that if you have any
questions about any actions that I have committed, I will answer.
So fur as my beliefs, my political activities, my associations, affilia-
tions, what i read, those are rights guaranteed to me and every other
citizen of t his Nation.
Mr. Wood. That is about the fourth time you have repeated that,
Mr. Fitzpatrick. You can simplify that and save time by saying on
the grounds you have previously given you refuse to answer.
Mr. Fitzpatrick. Mr. Chairman, if you will talk to your counsel
and ask him not to ask the same question in six or seven different ways,
he wouldn't be getting six or seven identical answers.
Mr. Wood. I don't mind getting six or seven identical answers, but
I don't like to have six or seven repetitions of grounds for refusing
to answer. Do you intend to answer the question or not? If you
don't want to answer it you can decline to answer for reasons you
have already given.
Mr. Fitzpatrick. I know time is short, and I don't want to take
up your time more than anybody else. Mr. Chairman, advise your
counsel not to repeat the question.
Mr. Wood. The only way we can seek information is to ask for it.
Mr. Fitzpatrick. The only way I can answer a question is to
answer it when it is asked.
Mr. Wood. That is your answer ?
Mr. Fitzpatrick. Yes.
Mr. Tavenner. I have no further questions, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Wood. Mr. McSweeney.
Mr. McSweeney. You made a charge against the committee that
we were trying to interfere in the election of your local. May I say
I have been in constant touch with men, including Father Eice and
others, trying to ascertain whether a delay in the hearings would be
beneficial. In other words, the committee does not want to interfere
in an election. After getting all the information I could from every
source I could, it was decided it was best for the hearings to proceed
on the date set forth in the subpenas. I think every member of the
committee made a conscientious effort to find out the facts, and we
were advised it was best for the hearings to proceed. That is the
result of my own investigation.
Mr. Fitzpatrick. Did your investigation show
Mr. Wood. The witness has no right to interrogate a member of the
committee.
Mr. Fitzpatrick. Mr. Chairman, I make certain allegations here.
The Congressman is inferring that wliat I said is not ti'ue.
Mr. McSweeney. Not at all. I am merely saying I made an effort,
and I think every member of the committee did, to try to ascertain
whether it was important to have the hearings go ahead as sched-
uled. We did not want to interfere with the election of the local in
any way.
606 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Mr. FiTZPATRicK. Certainly if you asked a murderer if lie killed
a man, he would deny it. Seeking information from Father Rice,
who instigated this thing, certainly he would give information to fur-
ther his purposes. I think the evidence will show this hearing was
rigged up to serve as a sounding board for the newspapers to carry
aogwash in 601, because the people running against us are bankrupt;
they have no program for the people; and they are stooping to this.
Mr. McSwEENEY. May I say it was because of a long-distance call
I received from Father Rice that I made a further investigation. I
^as not influenced by him. I sought every source I could, and it was
determined it was best for the hearings to proceed as scheduled.
Mr. FiTZPATRicK. The damage is done. The committee has been
used.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Moulder.
Mr. Moulder. In what manner and how will these hearings affect
your election ?
Mr. FITZPATRICK. The Pittsburgh newspapers will have headlines
this high [indicating] distorting everything that I say here, or
reporting very little of what I say here, but reporting everything
the other fellows have said.
Mr. Moulder. You haven't said anything yet that would clear you
of the charges made against you.
Mr. FiTZPATRicK. The charges I am making are against this com-
mittee for interfering with an election.
Mr. Moulder. How are we interfering with the election ?
Mr. FiTZPATRiCK. By calling this hearing at this time, taking us out
of circulation, and providing a sounding board for the hogwash that
is going out.
Mr. Moulder. You have been given an opportunity to deny you are
u Communist, but you have refused to deny it.
Mr. FiTZPATRicK. The opportunity you give me is to join with you
and these other witnesses who appeared here yesterday and say the
Constitution is a scrap of paper and it gives no protection to the
people and you fellows have a right to delve into the mind of everybody
who comes here. If I was a Congressman, I wouldn't say that was an
opportunity.
Mr. Moulder. You say the hearings were rigged in order to affect
your local election.
Mr. FiTZPATRiCK. And also to disrupt the negotiations, or have
an effect on the negotiations.
Mr. Moulder. Do you mean the hearings would reveal you are a
member of the Communist Party and a candidate for election, and
therefore they might affect the result ? Is that what you mean ?
Mr. FiTZPATRicK. Not at all.
Mr. Moulder. What are you a candidate for ?
Mr. FiTZPATRiCK. Delegate to the national convention, delegate for
district 6.
Mr. Moulder. You said you had been for many years reading with
interest the hearings of the Committee on Un-American Activities.
Mr. FiTzpATRicK. I said I read some. I don't have the time to read
them all, like the witness here yesterday who reads months and months
and months. I have to work for a living.
Mr. Moulder. What caused you to be so interested in the hearings
of this committee in the past ?
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 607
Mr. FiTZPATKicK. This committee and other subcommittees of the
Congress seem to make it a practice to find that it is necessary to inves-
tigate the UE just about the time there is a convention or an election—
in 1946, 1947, 1948, and 1949.
Mr. Moulder. This committee is not investigating the UE.
Mr. FiTZPATRiCK. That is what they have done in the papers.
Mr. Moulder. You have been subpenaed before the committee and
given an opportunity to clarify all these "hogwashing" charges.
Mr. FiTzrATRiCK. I have been given an opportunity to tear up the
Constitution, and I refuse to do it.
Mr. Moulder. You say you will answer questions about any acts
you have committed.
Mr. FiTZPATRiCK. That is right.
Mr. Moulder. Don't you feel the Congress of the United States has
a right to interrogate people as to their beliefs and what is their hope
for the future in those beliefs ?
Mr. FiTZPATRiCK. I think the Congress has no such rights, and I
think if you will read the Constitution you will see that. Do we have
thought control in the United States now ? Are you going to convict
people on thinking? I think maybe you fellows should read that
Constitution.
Mr. Moulder. That is what you have to do to be a good constitu-
tional lawyer, just read the Constitution.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Harrison.
Mr. Harrison. No questions.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Velde.
Mr. Velde. No questions.
Mr. Wood. You may be excused. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Frank Panzino.
Mr. Wood. You solemnly swear the evidence you give this subcom-
mittee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,
so help you God ?
Mr. Panzino. I do.
TESTIMONY OF FRANK PANZINO
Mr. Tavexner. Are you represented by counsel here ?
Mr. Panzino. Counsel is available in case I should request it.
Mr. Tavenner. I merely desire to inform you that you have the
right to consult counsel at any time during the course of your testi-
mony if you so desire.
Mr. Panzino. Thank you.
Mr. Tavenner. Will you state your full name and address ?
Mr. Panzino. Frank Panzino, 20-A Crothers Avenue, Turtle
Creek, Pa.
Mr. Tavenner. When and where were you born ?
Mr. Panzino. May 28, 1914, Braddock, Pa.
Mr. Tavenner. Are you appearing before the committee pursuant
to a subpena served upon you August 3, 1949 ?
Mr. Panzino. Mr. Chairman, I wonder if I will be granted the
privilege of making a few preliminary remarks, the same as other
witnesses ?
Mr. Wood. Will you answer the question whether you are appear-
ing voluntarily or under subpena ?
608 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Mr. Panzino. Under subpena,
Mr. Wood. Served when ?
Mr. Panzino. August 3.
Mr. Tavenner. Where are you presently employed?
Mr. Panzino. May I make a brief statement ?
Mr. Wood. After you have been identified.
Mr. Panzino. I am employed at the Westinghouse Corp. at East
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Mr. Tavi<:nner. Are you a member of local 601 of the United
Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America, CIO ?
Mr. Panzino. May I make the statement now ?
Mr. Wood. When you get through identifying yourself. Are you
a member of local 601 ?
Mr. Panzino. Yes, I am.
Mr. Wood. I think, Mr. Counsel, in fairness to the witness, we should
give him an opportunity to make a very brief statement, but we will
ask him to be very brief, because we have only 10 minutes. We will
give him 3 minutes.
Mr. Panzino. Thank you. I support the basic position Tom Fitz-
patrick took in his preliminary discussion, and I go further to say
that I resent very much that this committee has a right to question
me, as an American citizen, as to my loyalty to the United States
of America.
Mr. Wood. Nobody has asked you any such question.
Mr. Panzino. There have been inferences of that sort. I think the
people who should be investigated as to their loyalty to the United
States of America are those people who are willing to compromise
the basic principles of the Constitution, which, in my opinion, has
made this Nation the greatest on earth.
I want to say that I will in no way, shape or form jeopardize or
endanger the rights of the American people granted to them under the
Constitution of the United States. On the contrary, I will at all times
fight to see that every worker and every American citizen is granted
his full rights under the Constitution.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Wood. Proceed.
Mr. Tavenner. Will you set forth for the committee, in chrono-
logical order, the elective or appointive positions you have held in
local 601 ?
Mr. Panzino. In 1944 and 1945 I was the di^dsion steward of the
AB division, part of the Westinghouse plant at East Pittsburgh.
In 1946 I was business agent, elected by the workers in the shop to
both positions.
At present I am the assistant chief steward of local 601. I have
also held various chairmanships of various committees in local 601,
namely, chairman of the legislative committee, and chairman of the
Generator Committee, the union publication.
Mr. Tavenner. Have you at any time attended a Communist Party
meeting with Tom Fitzpatrick?
Mr. Panzino. Mr. Chairman, I again refer to my original remarks.
Mr. Wood. That is all right, but don't refer to them too much.
Let's just answer the question.
Mr. Panzino. The first amendment to the Constitution of the
United States, I believe
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 609
Mr. Wood. Please concede the committee has some knowled<^e of the
Constitution. I don't like to be lectured about what the Constitution
provides. Some members of the committee have some faint knowledge
of %yhat the Constitution provides, perhaps as much as the witness.
Did you attend a Communist Party meeting with Fitzpatrick ? That
is the question.
Mr. Panzino. Under the first amendment to the Constitution, which
guarantees the right to assembly, I believe that answers the question
counsel has asked.
Mr. Wood. Do I understand you invoke the Constitution as a reason
for not answering further?
Mr. Panzino. I have answered the question.
Mr. Wood. I will ask you the question myself, and I want a forth-
right answer or a declination to answer. Have you at any time ever
attended a Communist Party meeting with Tom Fitzpatrick?
Mr. Panzino. Mr. Chairman, I again refer you to the first amend-
ment.
Mr. Wood. I don't want to be referred to it.
Mr. Panzino. I have answered the question.
Mr. Wood. Have you attended such a meeting ?
Mr. Panzino. I have attended many meetings, at my church
Mr. Wood. We are not asking you about churches.
Mr. Panzino. Any meeting I may have attended is my own per-
sonal business and my right guaranteed to me under the Constitution
of the United States.
Mr. Wood. Certainly nobody disputes that, but as a matter of fact,
did you attend such a meeting?
Mr. Panzino. I have answered the question to the best of my knowl-
edge.
Mr. Wood. Let me ask you this : Do you know whether or not you
attended such a meeting?
Mr. Panzino. Mr. Chairman, evidently you asked the question and
you want to answer it.
Mr. Wood. I want you to answer it.
Mr. Panzino. I have answered it, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Harrison. Is that your complete answer?
Mr. Panzino. That is right.
Mr. Tavenner. You have spoken of the rights under the Constitu-
tion. What do you consider would become of the Constitution if the
Communists should gain control in this country ?
Mr. Panzino. I think again, Mr. Chairman, under the fifth amend-
ment, that is my own personal belief. I think there are enough laws
in this country to take care of any subversive activities within the
Nation.
Mr. Wood. Do you consider communism as a subversive activity?
Mr. Panzino. Again I say that what I think is my own business.
I will answer that among my friends, my union members, and not
Mr. Wood. To this committee ?
Mr. Panzino. To somebody, whether it be this committee or any
outside organization, that is trying to destroy the constitutional rights
of the American workers.
Mr. Tavenner. Have you attended Communist Party meetings with
Charles Copeland ?
610 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Mr. Panzino. Mr. Chairman
Mr. Wood. If you desire to give the same answer you have given to
other questions, you may do so.
Mr. Panzino. I have answered the question.
Mr. Tavenner. Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of
the Communist Party ?
Mr. Panzino. Again I say that I have answered the question in my
preliminary remarks.
Mr. Wood. And that is the only answer that you desire to give ?
Mr. Panzino. That, I believe, is the correct answer to give. Tliat
is defending the Constitution of the United States.
Mr. Wood. I asked if that is all the answer you will give?
Mr. Panzino. I say I have answered the question.
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Chairman, I see no value in going into other
questions.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Harrison, any questions ?
Mr. Harrison. Mr. Chairman, I think on this whole subject we
should have a meeting and reach some decision before Congress
adjourns.
Mr. Wood. Mr. McSweeney.
Mr. McSweeney. No questions.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Moulder.
Mr, Moulder. You heard Mr. Fitzpatrick's testimony as to the ef-
fect this hearing would have on an election to be held for the pur-
pose of selecting delegates to the national convention. Are you a
candidate for election as a delegate ?
Mr. Panzino. I am a candidate for delegate to the national con-
vention.
Mr. Moulder. If it were known that you were a member of the
Communist Party, do you think it would affect your chances of being
elected ?
Mr. Panzino. Mr. Congressman, if you knew the past history of
our local union, you would know that in every election that we have
there are always people who are not able to stand on their record of
achievement and fighting for the workers, and who have to resort
to some sort of bogeyman in order to influence the people to vote for
them. This here question of communism is nothing new as far as
our local union is concerned. It is nothing new. And I believe that
the people who belong to the UE, and especially to local 601,
will judge the candidates on the basis of their record of fighting for
their grievances. And at this time I certainly feel that it may have
an effect. I definitely know that it will have an effect on the wage
negotiations that are going on at this particular time between the
Westinghouse Co. and the United Electrical, Eadio and Machine
Workers of America.
Mr. Moulder. Instead of this hearing affecting the election ad-
versely, it gives you and others who have been accused an opportunity
to deny and refute the rumors and hogwash Mr. Fitzpatrick referred
to, but you have refused to do that.
Mr. Panzino. I have not refused. I have answered the questions
to the best of my ability. I may say at the present time that I read
in the press that Congressman McSweeney had said he had heard noth-
ing of these hearings being held and if he had known, he would have
felt that the hearings should be delayed until after the election.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 611
Whether he said that or not, I don't know, but it appeared in the
Pittsburgh papers.
Mr. McSwEENEY. May I answer the gentleman ?
Mr. Wood. If the Congressman desires.
Mr. McSwEENEY. I desire to. As I explained to Mr. Fitzpatrick,
I was called, and when they accused us of interfering with an election,
I said I would try to secure information as to whether it would inter-
fere with an election, and after making long-distance calls at my own
expense I found it would not aflfect an election and there was no rea-
son for delaying the hearings.
Mr. Panzino. I am just relating the so-called fact that appeared in
the Pittsburgh press.
Mr. Wood. Any further questions, Mr. Moulder ?
Mr. Moulder. No further questions.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Velde ?
Mr. Velde. No questions. ■i
Mr. Wood. You may be excused.
Mr. TA\Ti:NNER. Mr. Robert Whisner.
(Representative Velde leaves.)
ilr. Wood. Raise your right hand. You solemnly swear the evi-
dence you give this subcommittee will be the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
Mr. Whisner. I do.
Mr. Wood. Have a seat.
TESTIMONY OF ROBERT C. WHISNER i
Mr. Tavenner. Are you represented by counsel ? '
Mr. Whisner. I understand my counsel is in the room here, Mr.
Chairman, but if I can get through this thing myself, without him, I
would like to try.
Mr. Taat:nner. That is all right. I merely wanted you to under-
stand you have a right to consult counsel at any time you desire dur-
ing the course of your testimony.
What is your full name ?
Mr. Whisner. Robert C. Whisner.
Mr. TA^T.NNER. What is your present address ?
Mr. Whisner. Irwin, Pa.
Mr. Tavenner. When and where were you born ?
Mr. Whisner. Turtle Creek, Pa.
Mr. Tavenner. What date?
Mr. Whisner. August 14, 1902.
Mr. Tavenner. You are appearing before this committee in pursu-
ance to a subpena served upon you August 3, 1949, is that not so?
Mr. Whisner. Yes; that is right.
Mr. Tavenner. Where are you presently employed ?
Mr. Whisner. I have been employed in the Westinghouse Corp in
East Pittsburgh the past 27 years.
Mr. Tavenner. Are you a member of local 601 of United Electrical,
Radio, and Machine Workers of America, CIO?
Mr. Whisner. Yes. I have been since its inception.
Mr. Tavenner. How long have you been a member?
Mr. Whisner. We were recognized in 1937 by the United States
Government, but we were plugging for recognition a couple years
before that, so I was in there since about 1935.
612 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Mr. Tavenner. Will you set forth in chronological order the offices,
elective or appointive, you have held in local 601 ?
Mr. Whisner. Yes sir. But 1 can't be too accurate as to dates. I
was always a steward. I believe in 1943 I was recording secretary.
And I served on the executive board for three consecutive years at
the beginning of our organization. Right now I am subdivision
steward.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to say a few words if it is all right
with the committee.
Mr. Wood. We will be delighted to hear you. There is a quorum
call and we will have to be in the House in the next 10 minutes. Will
you please make it brief ?
Mr. Whisner. Yes, I won't be very long.
Mr. Wood. We will give you 3 minutes.
Mr. Whisner. All right. I get more than that from the union some-
times.
I would like to say, Mr. Chairman and fellow workers — I forgot
for a minute I am not in the union hall, but Congressmen
Mr, Wood. We appreciate the compliment because we are all workers.
Mr. Whisner. I would like to say that I never knew anything about
this hearing until, I believe it was, Wednesday, August 3, that the
news report came in just as I was getting ready to go to work in the
Inorning. In fact, it was before I got out of bed, and my boy ran
in and said : "Daddy, they are talking about you on the radio."
I missed that broadcast and waited for the next one, and I heard
I was subpenaed to Washington. The Pittsburgh papers said I was
subpenaed to appear here before the Un-American Committee on
Wednesday, and that they had sought us out but had been unable to
get any statement from any of us people.
' I say that to show the atmosphere out there. I come from a respec-
table family out there. My dad worked for Westinghouse 52 years.
I have a brother who is a squire. My dad served on the council. This
thing set us back on our heels. My kids and wife and friends have
been kind of disgraced by this smear campaign. The Pittsburgh
papers carry headlines like this [showing paper] . That is yesterday's
paper.
Mr. Harrison. Does that "Ex-Red leader" refer to you?
Mr. Whisner. I guess I am one of them. There are four of us down
here and we are all fighting the same battle.
Mr. Wood. You will be given an opportunity to deny that.
Mr. Whisner. This can happen to anybody in the United States.
You can be called anything, and if the courts uphold it, there is
nothing an individual can do.
I told the people at the plant that everybody out there knew my
political beliefs, or my political leanings. I am no right-winger. I am
known as a left-winger. I have been fighting on the side of the work-
ing class, and I have been elected by 601 for practically everything
I, have run for.
This right-wing, in my opinion, without the Association of Catholic
Trade Unionists, if they didn't have the two words "Communist"
and "Red," these boys would be speechless, because they would have
nothing to speak about. This is the only way these boys can win
this election. Believe me, this is the only way they can win this
election.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 613
I don't say you people are consciously trying to smear us, but we are
being smeared.
As far as my political beliefs and affiliations are concerned, I will
take the same position the other boys took. I consider I am protected
by the Constitution of the United States under the first and fifth
amendments.
I told the workers I was coming to this hearing, and if you asked me
any honest questions, I would answer. But if you try to act like a
bunch of brain specialists and delve into my beliefs, I am afraid I
can't answer and live up to the Constitution of the United States.
Mr. Wood. You say you have been smeared. The processes set up
in this committee are designed to offer you the opportunity to dis-
close whether or not you are a member of subversive organizations,
and if you desire to answer those questions, you will be given an
opportunity to do so.
Proceed, Mr. Tavenner.
Mr. Whisner. I want to say something about the testimony yes-
terday.
Mr. Wood. We heard the testimony yesterday.
Mr. Whisner. But you linked it up with our union. You had a
man who told about a world-wide plot, and you linked it up with
our union. It is interfering with our union. I helped to build that
union up.
Mr. Wood. How are we interfering with the union ?
Mr. Whisner. You link up a world-wide plot with local 601.
You have a man who said he spent 15 years with the Kremlin, and you
link it up with our hearing. The Pittsburgh papers will say we are
linked up with the Kremlin.
Mr. Wood. Well, are you? Are you linked up with them?
Mr. Whisner. What kind of an answer am I supposed to give to
that? "Yes" or "No?"
Mr. Wood. We just want the truth. You say the newspapers are
going to say you are linked up with the Kremlin, with the Communist
Party. Are you ?
Mr. Whisner. I am linked up with the workers. As far as the
Kremlin is concerned, they can take care of that.
Mr. Wood. Are you linked up with the Communist Party?
Mr. Whisner. I will stand on my constitutional rights.
Mr. Wood. And refuse to answer it ?
Mr. Whisner. I will not refuse to answer it. I will answer it in my
own way, as I did a while ago.
Mr. Wood. And is that the only way you are going to answer it?
Mr. Whisner. Yes, sir.
Mr. Wood. All right.
Mr. Tavenner. I will ask you only one or two other questions. On
April 6, 1984, you were issued a passport to travel in Europe. Will you
tell us the countries in which you traveled under this passport ?
Mr. Whisner. Yes, sir. I will be glad to. I have nothing to hide.
I consider myself a pretty good American.
Mr. Wood. Just answer the question.
Mr. Whisner. You asked a question. How about letting me answer
it my own way ?
Mr. Wood. Just state the countries.
614 coMMUisrisT infiltration of labor unions
Mr. Whisner. Is that all you want to know ?
Mr. Tavenner. First let's find out the countries.
Mr. Whisner. First was the United States. I had to leave the
United States.
Mr. Tavenner. We assumed that.
Mr. Whisner. We landed at Plymouth, England. Then we went
through the Baltic Sea and the North Sea and the Gulf of Finland
into Leningrad and the Soviet Union. Coming back we went through
Germany, France, and so on.
Mr. Wood. You say "we."
Mr. Whisner. I was a member of a trade union delegation. There
were eight of us. I was elected in East Pittsburgh by workers of East
Pittsburgh, and my expenses were paid to the Soviet Union by workers
in the East Pittsburgh plant.
Mr. Tavenner. What plant?
Mr. Whisner. Westinghouse.
Mr, Tavenner. I notice your application for passport was for travel-
ing to England and France and visiting friends. This delegation was
not on a trip to visit friends, was it?
Mr. Whisner. I don't know how the application for passport came
about.
Mr. Wood. You signed it, didn't you ?
Mr. Whisner. I don't remember that. If you can show me the
application, I did, but I don't remember. That was in 1934. There
was a depression on. I was out of a job. I was working 4 days a
week and had four little kids.
Mr. Wood. I only asked if you signed the application.
Mr. Whisner. I was in pretty bad shape, and this trip was offered
to me.
Mr. Wood. We all were at that time.
Mr. Whisner. Some didn't do so bad.
Mr. Wood. Did you sign the application?
Mr. Whisner. I don't remember, but if you can show it to me,
I will tell you if it is my signature.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you remember the application was for permis-
sion to travel in England and France ?
Mr. Whisner. If I am not mistaken, my passport called for a lot
more countries than that. I had my picture taken in Turtle Creek.
Mr. Wood. Did you put on your application that you intended to
visit Kussia ?
Mr. Whisner. I couldn't tell you that. I had nothing to do with
that part of it. I was just a working man going to take a trip to
Russia and see what was going on.
Mr. Wood. If you went to Russia or anywhere else on an applica-
tion you did not sign, you were violating a criminal statute.
Mr. Whisner. A what?
Mr. Wood. A criminal statute.
Mr. Whisner. I don't remember.
Mr. Tavenner. I think I should tell you that our investigators have
examined the application, and it shows that the application was to
travel in England and France for the purpose of visiting friends.
You knew before you signed that application that you were going
to Russia, didn't you ?
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 615
Mr. Whisner. That is riji'lit, and everybody in Westin^lionse
knew I was goinir to Russia. That is what it was all about. There
was a meeting in the school house at Turtle Creek, and everybody
knew what they were voting for, for someone to take that trip.
Mr. Wood. But the Visa Division didn't know anything except what
you had on the application.
Mr. Whisner. I didn't go personally and get it.
Mr. Harrison. Who got it ?
Mr. Whisner. There was an organization known as Friends of the
Soviet Union who got the passport for me.
Mr. Harrison. They got it for you ?
Mr. Whisner. They obtained it and gave it to me. If there is
anything wrong with the passport or visa, I don't know anything
about it.
Mr. Tavenner. Are you a member of Friends of the Soviet Union ?
Mr. Whisner. No, sir. To the best of my knowledge I never signed
up anything with them. They wanted to send delegates to the Soviet
Union, and I happened to be the one elected at Pittsburgh.
Mr. Moulder. I would like to ask one question.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Moulder.
Mr. Moulder. You referred to a smear campaign to affect your
candidacy for election as a delegate to the national convention. Do
you regard the accusation of being a Communist as a smear?
Mr. Whisner. I would say, in view of the hysteria whipped up in
this country in the past few years, it wouldn't be safe for anybody to
run on anything that would resemble a Communist ticket.
Mr. Wood. The committee will recess until 4 o'clock.
(Whereupon, at 12 : 20 p. m., a recess was taken until 4 p. m. of the
same day.)
afternoon session
Mr. Wood. The committee will be in order.
Let the record show that the following members are present: Mr.
Walter, Mr. Moulder, and Mr. Wood.
Mr. Tavenner. I would like to recall Mr. Whisner.
Mr. Wood. And also Mr. Harrison is here.
TESTIMONY OF ROBERT C. WHISNER (Resumed), ACCOMPANIED
BY HIS COUNSEL, DAVID SCRIBNER
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Wliisner, we were asking you about your trip
to Russia.
Mr. Whisner. Yes, sir.
Mr. Ta\^nner. I understood you to say that you went through Eng-
land and on to Russia ; is that correct?
ISlr. Whisner. That is correct. I consulted my attorney during the
dinner hour here, and he advised me not to say anything more about
that there, because it looks like you fellows are going to try to do a job
on me on the passport business, and this thing is 15 years old.
Mr. Tavenner. I can allay any fears you have on that by telling
you the statute of limitations has" run on any offense that might have
been committed in connection with your obtaining this passport, and
therefore there is no danger of self-incrimination by reason of that.
616 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
So if you would like to consult your counsel again, I would be glad to
have you do so.
Mr. Whisner. I do, if he is here.
(Witness consults counsel.)
Mr. Whisner. My attorney says that in view of the fact you fellows
appear to be going to try to make a little trouble for me here, not to go
into it. I would like to say, however, that my conscience is clear on it.
I have nothing to hide.
Mr. Tavenjster. Will you identify your counsel for the record ?
Mr. ScRiBNER. David Scribner.
Mr. Tamsnner. From where ?
Mr. Scribner. 11 East 51st Street, New York City. I would like to
make it clear just what it is I did tell the witness, and that is that the
witness could, if he wished, avail himself of his right of not going into
this matter, under the fifth amendment.
Mr. Tavenner. I don't know if you understood my statement that
the statute of limitations has run on any offense that might have been
committed in connection with the obtaining of this passport.
Mr. Scribner. I am not an expert on the statute in this matter, and I
would like to suggest to the witness he can, if he wishes, rely on his
constitutional right.
Mr. Wood. You understand, of course, Mr. Scribner, if, acting on
that advice, the witness refuses to answer a pertinent question, you ap-
preciate what the consequences may be ?
Mr. Scribner. I am cognizant of that. But a mere statement by
counsel for the committee of what the law is, is at this time not sufti-
cient for me to advise the witness.
Mr. Wood. If the witness desires additional time to confer with coun-
sel who may be able to give him proper information, I would like to
give him that opportunity.
Mr. Whisner. You said something about penalty. What did you
mean by that ?
Mr. Wood. Under the the law, a witness who refuses to answer a
question asked him in a legislative committee that is pertinent to its
inquiry is subject to be cited for contempt of Congress. I am trying
to give you every opportunity to protect yourself.
Mr. Scribner. Suppose we listen to the next questions, question by
question, and make a determination as we go along 'i
Mr. Wood. Suppose you sit right there by him.
Mr. Tavenner. My question was whether or not you told us, in dis-
cussing this trip, that you went to Russia by way of England ?
Mr. Whisner. That is right. We went by boat to England.
Mr. Tavenner. And from England where did you go ?
Mr. Whisner. Through the North Sea and the Baltic Sea and the
Gulf of Finland into Leningrad.
Mr. Wood. After leaving England, was your next stop Leningrad?
Mr. Whisner. Yes, after we left England, as far as I remember, we
went right through.
(Representative Case enters.)
Mr. Tavenner. This morning you were doubtful about your sig-
nature to the passport application. I have subpenaed from the Im-
migration and Naturalization Service a copy of your passport appli-
cation, which I now hand you, and at the top of the second page I will
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 617
refer to an oath of allegiance which is executed by you. Is that your
signature ?
(Witness confers with counsel.)
Mr. Whisner. Yes, I think it is.
Mr. Tavenner. And that was executed before the deputy clerk
of the United States district court at Pittsburgh, Pa., as shown by that
application ; is that correct '?
Mr. Whisner. Yes, I would say it was. Could I say a few words
on that ?
Mr. Taa^nner. Yes, sir, in just a moment. I would like to intro-
duce that application for passport in evidence, mark it "Exhibit
Whisner 1."
Mr. Wood. It will be admitted."
Mr. Wood. Did you want to make some comment on the application ?
Mr. Whisner. Yes. So far as I am concerned on that application,
I didn't do anything wrong myself. I thought I was going straight
to Russia, and I did. I didn't know I was supposed to go to France
and England. Is that what it says there ?
Mr. Tavenner. I will read it to you. The passport application re-
cites: "I am about to go abroad temporarily and intend to return to
the United States within 3 months." Then in the blank provided for
the name of countries to be visited there is written in "England" and
"France" ; and the object of visit is stated to be "to visit friends." Now,
how long a period of time did you spend on this friendly visit to
London ?
Mr. Whisner. As far as that part is concerned, I don't know any-
thing about that. That is my signature, but that was a long, long
time ago. I don't know why France and England were used, because
my impression was I was going straight to Russia, and I did. This
all came out of an election. The whole thing was based on a trip to
Soviet Russia to see what was going on. There were eight people
from the United States, including myself. The whole valley knew
what was going on. In fact, there was a man running against me who
is now serving in the State legislature of Pennsylvania. I got more
votes than he did. The man is Red Moran, a State representative in
the State legislature. So I took the trip. But I had nothing to do
with that there.
Mr. Tavenner. The arrangements for you to obtain that passport
were made by the Friends of the Soviet Union organization ?
Mr. Whisner, Yes. They were all made. I got a visa, I believe,
cleared through the United States Government, and as far as I am
concerned and know, that was a legal trip.
Mr. Tavenner. You didn't have any friends in England that you
desired to visit at all, did you?
Mr. Whisner. I had a friend in England I would have liked to
see, but I didn't see him.
Mr. Tavenner. You didn't even call on him when you got there,
did you ?
Mr. Whisner. I don't want you to put words in my mouth. I don't
want you t o try to lead me in a trap. I will be honest and answer
" See appendix, p. 650, Whisner exhibit 1.
95613 — 49 — pt. 1 6
618 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
your questions until you go into my sacred rights under the
Constitution.
Mr. Wood. Did you make any effort to see your friend in England ?
Mr. Whisner. No, I had hoped to see him, but I didn't.
Mr. Harrison. And that wasn't the purpose of your trip ?
Mr. Whisner. No.
Mr. Tavenner. And you didn't stop in France ?
Mr. Whisner. We stopped in France.
Mr. Tavenner. I thought you said you didn't?
Mr. Whisner. We landed in Plymouth, England. From there we
went to London. From there we got on a boat and went to Leningrad.
Coming back we went to Le Havre, France.
Mr. Tavenner. But you didn't actually go to France to see friends ?
Mr. Whisner. That is correct. I didn't have friends in France.
Mr. Ta^^nner. How many days did you spend in London or
England ?
Mr. Whisner. Thirty-six hours, maybe.
Mr. Tavenner. How many hours in France ?
Mr. Whisner. Not much longer than it took to go through it.
Mr. Ta\t^nner. How long were you away on this trip ?
Mr. Whisner. I think in the neighborhood of 6 weeks, but I am not
sure. Remember, gentlemen, this thing happened 15 years ago.
Mr. Tavenner. With the exception of the time you spent in travel-
ing, you were in Russia ?
Mr. Whisner. Yes, and I traveled around in Russia.
Mr. Walter. Did you personally make the application for passport
in the United States district court at Pittsburgh ?
Mr. Whisner. No. This thing was arranged for me, and the fellow
who cam.e out after me, I forget his name now, took me to Pittsburgh,
I think to the old post-office building, and had that paper all arranged
for me.
Mr. Case. Did he have the passport application written out?
Mr. Whisner. I couldn't recall that.
Mr. Case. Did you make out the passport application?
Mr. Whisner. Do you have it there ?
Mr. Case. Yes.
Mr. Whisner. The only writing on that is my signature, isn't it?
Mr. Case. Who filled out the answers to the questions ?
Mr. Whisner. You fellows are asking me about something that
happened a long time ago. If there was any smoke connected with
this, I would have thought it would have been brought up long ago,
instead of waiting until the union elections come up. (Examining
Exhibit Whisner 1) : I don't see any handwriting on it.
Mr. Tavenner. It is typed.
Mr. Whisner. Do you mean did I type this ?
Mr. Wood. Mr. Case asked you the question.
Mr. Whisner. No, sir ; I didn't.
Mr. Case. You didn't have anything to do with answering the
questions in the passport ?
Mr. Whisner. No, sir. I couldn't run a typewriter if somebody
paid me.
Mr. Case. Did someone make out that application in your presence ?
Were you there when the answers were written in ?
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 619
Mr. Whisner. If I remember correctly, this thing was made out and
I was asked to go to Pittsburgh to arrange for my trip, and I had
to sign — I thought it was a passport. What do you call this, an ap-
plication for passport ?
Mr. Tavenner. Yes,
Mr. Whisner. It looks to me like it is all right. I can't see any-
thing wrong with it except the France and England end of it.
Mr. Case. Do you customarily sign papers like that without know-
ing what you are putting your signature to ?
Mr. Whisner. Certainly I don't, but the thing is this : We were liv-
ing in a period of a depression, and, like I was telling you this morning,
I was out of work, my electricity was cut off, they took my washing
machine, and they wanted to take the linoleum off the floor. They
said : "How woulcl you like a trip to Europe ?" And I said I wouldn't
mind, I wasn't doing anything anyway. There was a big meeting at
Turtle Creek and I was elected to make the trip. Everybody in the
valley knew about it. It was in the papers.
Mr. Case. But when you made application for passport you had to
make it out or somebody had to make it out for you and ask you certain
questions about your citizenship and age and questions of that
character.
Mr. Whisner. I believe they were asked me at the old post-office
building in Pittsburgh, but I am not clear about it. I never thought I
would hear any more about this.
Mr. Case. You must have been asked the question as to where you
were going. That is one of the questions answered on the application.
Mr. Whisner. Isn't that on there?
Mr. Case. Yes. The point is, on that application apparently you
answered the question as to the places you expected to visit, and listed
them as England and France for the purpose of visiting friends,
rather than stating you expected to visit Russia. I haven't had an
opportunity to examine the passport application. What I have said
is based on what I have just heard. But the questions asked on a
passport application are usually questions only the applicant can
truthfully answer, because he is the one who is going to sign the
application.
Mr. Sc'ribner. I make a suggestion. I am not fully familiar with
the statute of limitations in a matter such as this, and I would very
much appreciate it if an opportunity would be given to me to look into
that matter so that I can advise Mr. Whisner as to what the actual
score is.
Mr. Walter. The statute has run.
Mr. Scribner. The statute has run ?
Mr. Walter. Yes.
Mr. Wood. Two j^ears.
Mr. Moulder. And in addition to that, any testimony given by this
witness here could not be used as a basis for prosecution.
]Mr. Scribxer. I appreciate the statement by Congressman Walter,
and if he says it is so I have no doubt about it. I think the witness
has been frank, and I don't think any purpose could be served by con-
tinuing interrogation on this subject. I am not intending to take
away the prerogative of this committee, but in the light of my general
unfamiliarity, and in view of the fact the witness has been making
620 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
frank answers on this and everything else, I think the committee has
what it needs.
Mr. Case. If he is unfamiliar with the things to which he subscribed
in that application and wants the record to show he did not himself
make out the ap]:>lii ation, it would be appropriate to show who made it
out for him and put in the answers which he himself says now were
not true answers, namely, that he was going to France and England to
visit friends.
Mr. ScRiBNER. The witness said it was so long ago he didn't recall
the name of the man who brought him down, and I don't see what con-
ceivable application this has to this inquiry.
Mr. Wood. Maybe counsel is not familiar with the rules. Counsel
has no right to make objections to questions asked. He has the right
to advise his client.
Mr. Moulder. The witness testified it was Friends of the Soviet
Union who made out the application.
Mr. Wood. The question by Mr. Case was whether he actually did
the writing on the application, other than the signature.
Mr. Walter. Did the other men who accompanied you on this trip
sign the applications for their passports at the same time you signed
this one?
Mr. Whisner. No. These other jjeople came from other parts of
the country. I never saw them before or since. In fact, at that time
Canada sent 11 delegates, and Mexico sent some. I believe there were
200 from all over the world. They were trade-union delegates. If I
did anything wrong on this here, I didn't know anything about it. I
don't believe I did, and if I had thought it was illegal I never would
have taken the trip.
Mr. Wood. You are leaving it now that that is your signature but
that the typing done in the application was not done by you because
you didn't use a typewriter ?
Mr. Whisner. Everything in my handwriting is mine.
Mr. Wood. But the rest, you had nothing to do with ?
Mr. Whisner. No.
Mr. Wood. Do you know who did it ?
Mr. Whisner. No, I couldn't tell you.
Mr. Walter. Did a clerk fill in the answers after asking you the
questions ?
Mr. Whisner. I believe you are right about that, but it is pretty
hazy. That was a long time ago. Fifteen years ago is quite a while.
Mr. Tavenner. Did some member of Friends of the Soviet Union
indicate the answers that should be filled in, instead of you ?
Mr. Whisner. I don't recall. Don't they ask you the questions on
there and you fill them in ?
Mr. Tavenner. Yes. I am wondering if you gave the answers or if
a member of Friends of the Soviet Union answered them.
Mr. Wood. As I remember, this morning you said somebody else, the
Friends of the Soviet Union, fixed up this paper and that you signed it.
Is that what you said this morning?
Mr. Whisner. I believe I said something to that effect.
Mr. Wood. The impression I had from your testimony this morning
was that it was all filled out and all you did was sign it. Is that correct
or not ?
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 621
Mr. Whisner. Yes. As I remember, all it needed was my sio;nature
to make it legal for me to go to Europe. I never took a trip to Europe
before. I thought, well, I wasn't working, and the workers got up
enough money to send me over there, and I think the workers contrib-
uted $10, $12, or $15 a week to my wife and kids.
Mr. Case. Mr. Whisner, your name is Robert C. Whisner?
Mr. WiiiSNER. Yes.
Mr. Case. What is your father's name ?
Mr. Whisner. Robert R. Whisner.
Mr. Case. Where was he born ?
Mr. Whisner. West Virginia.
Mr. Case. Do you remember the town ?
Mr. Whisner. Yes.
Mr. Case. What was it ?
Mr. Whisner. Berkeley Springs.
Mr. Case. Where were you born ^
Mr. Whisner. Turtle Creek, Pa.
Mr. Case. When were you born ?
Mr. Whisner. 1902.
Mr. Case. Those are questions asked and answered in this passport
application which someone must have written in here who knew those
answers, and then, along with questions of that character, the passport
application states, in printing, "I am about to go abroad temporarily
and intend to return to the United States within," and "3 months" is
filled in, then there is a place for the names of countries to be visited,
and the answer is given "England, France," and a place is given for
the object of the visit, and the answer is given "to visit friends."
The questions first asked, about when you were born and where you
were born, are questions that would normally be asked of you.
Mr. Whisner. Are they correct ?
Mr. Case. Apparently they are. They correspond with the answers
you have just given. But whoever prepared the application must have
asked you or someone who knew the answers for those answers.
Mr. Whisner. To the best of my knowledge that was filled out in
the Old Post Office Building in Pittsburgh. I am not too sure about
it, but I think it was. All I did was answer questions.
Mr. Case. Orally, and somebody filled in the answers ?
Mr. Whisner. Then I signed my name to it and took off.
Mr. Case. When they asked where you were going to visit, you said
England and France, and when they asked the object of your visit you
said to visit friends.
Mr. Whisner. I didn't say that. That was a long time ago.
Mr. Case. That is all.
Mr. Tavenner. You stated that the Friends of the Soviet Union
arranged for the passport. Did they also arrange for your transpor-
tation, the cost of your trip, in part ?
Mr. Whisner. The Westinghouse workers took up a collection to
send me on that trip. It was well advertised. I think I was supposed
to go in April for the May Day demonstration on May 1, but they
didn't raise the money in time so I went the following November. I
left here in October. As far as the money is concerned from Friends
of the Soviet Union, I never saw no money from them. This was
$225 or $250.
622 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Mr. Tavenner. The entire program of the trip was arranged by
the Friends of the Soviet Union ; isn't that true ?
Mr. Whisner. That is true.
Mr. Tavenner. Did that association make any contribution to the
expense of your trip ?
Mr. Whisner. I just told you that the $225 or $250 was collected
from the workers in Westinghouse.
Mr. Tavenner. Yes, but you have not said there were not additional
funds made available to you for transportation expenses by Friends
of the Soviet Union.
Mr. Whisner. I didn't say there was.
Mr. Tavenner. You didn't say there wasn't.
Mr. Whisner. I don't know. My impression was it was all col-
lected in the shop.
Mr. Tavenner. But you don't know to what extent part of the ex-
pense was paid by Friends of the Soviet Union ?
Mr. Whisner. No.
Mr. Tavenner. When you say $225 or $250 was raised locally, you
don't mean by any organization ?
Mr. Whisner. No ; workers in the shop. The thing was advertised
and these people chipped in.
Mr. Tavenner. It was not any union action ?
Mr. Whisner. No. We had no union at that time.
Mr. Wood. The funds thus collected by contributions from your
fellow workers, were those funds turned over to you to purchase your
ticket ?
Mr. Whisner. No. It was already bought.
Mr. Wood. By whom ?
Mr. Whisner. I don't know the fellow's name.
Mr. Wood. He was a stranger to you ?
Mr. Whisner. I knew him, but I wouldn't want to implicate the
guy and get him in any trouble.
Mr. Wood. Was he working at the plant?
Mr. Whisner. No. He was a member of FSU, Friends of the
Soviet Union.
Mr. Tavenner. And your ticket had been purchased before the
monejT^ was made available from your friends at home ?
Mr. Whisner. I didn't say that.
Mr. Tavenner. I understood you to say that. What are the facts ?
Mr. Whisner. They couldn't raise the money in time to send me for
tlie May Day demonstration, so I had to wait until the fall of the year,
and I went over in October. I left here in October.
Mr. Ta^^nner. What was this celebration that you are speaking
of?
Mr. Whisner. Well, it is
Mr. Tavenner. The Red Army celebration ?
Mr. Whisner. The November 7 celebration, I think, is the anni-
versary of the overthrow of the Czar, and they hold a big celebration
over there.
Mr. Tavenner. It is called Revolution Day ?
Mr. Whisner. I never heard it called Revolution Day. But any-
how, I witnessed it : I saw it.
Mr. Tavenner. I would like to read to you a resolution adopted by
the Communist Party of the United States during one of its conven-
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 623
tions, which was contained in the Connnunist, official organ of the
Communist Party, issue of October 1931, page 832, and which states:
The Central Committee calls attention to the task assigned by the 11th Plenum
of the ECCI which calls upon every member of the Communist Party to regard as
a task of first importance Ihe struggle against the war danger and the fight for
the defense of the Soviet Union. As an important means to develop the struggle
for the defense of the Soviet Union is the building of the Friends of the Soviet
Union into a mass organization. The Communist Party oi'ganizations must assist
in the building of the FSU and in the organization of a workers' delegation to
the November 7th celebrations, consisting chiefly of industrial workers from the
basic industries.
Mr. Whisner, when you went to the Soviet Union under the auspices
of the Friends of the Soviet Union, were you following this resolution
adopted by the Communist Party of the United States in support of
the resolution of the eleventh plenum of the executive committee of the
Communist International ?
Mr. Whisner. What you have just read is news to me. I never
heard of it before in my life. Could I say a word, please?
Mr. Tavenner. This morning you stated you were not a member
of the Friends of the Soviet Union.
Mr. W^HisNER. I didn't say that.
Mr. Ta\t:nner. I asked you if j^ou were a member.
Mr. Whisner. 1 said I didn't think I was. I can't remember ever
signing an application.
Mr. Tavenner. Then there is some doubt in your mind as to whether
or not you were a member?
Mr. Whisner, Yes, that is right.
Mr. Tavenner. There is doubt?
Mr. Whisner. Yes.
Mr. Tavenner. Let us see if we can clear that up. I show you a
leaflet which advertises a meeting at Irving Plaza Hall, in which it is
stated :
Come and listen to our brothers who just returned from the Soviet Union where
they were sent as delegates by their respective locals.
This leaflet contains the name of Eobert Whisner, elected at a meeting
called at Turtle Creek. Will you examine that and state whether or
not you are still in doubt as to whether you were a member of Friends
of the Soviet Union ?
Mr. Whisner. Where does this say I was a member of Friends of
the Soviet Union ?
Mr. Russell. It says you were a delegate.
Mr. Whisner. Of course, I was a delegate. I was elected at Turtle
Creek.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you ordinarily become a delegate from an or-
ganization of which you are not a member ?
Mr. Whisner. I was a delegate from Westinghouse. Are you trying
to lead me into a trap ? Look, I am trying to be honest with you. I
took a trip to the Soviet Union, and I took it honestly. That leaflet
advertises a meeting that, after we returned, was arranged to hear us
speak. At that meeting, not being a very good public speaker, I didn't
make much of a speech, and I folded up on it.
Mr. Tavenner. I think you are too modest. I think you do very
well.
Mr. Whisner. I may have improved since then.
624 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Mr. Case. Mr. Chairman, this leaflet says: "Auspices: New York
District, Friends of the Soviet Union." And the heading says :
Come and listen to our brothers who just returned from the Soviet Union
where they were sent as delegates by their respective locals.
Mr. Wood. Maybe we can clarify this by asking the witness if the
Robert Wliisner mentioned there is himself.
Mr. Whisner. I imagine it was me.
Mr. Tavenner. It says you were a delegate from your local organi-
zation. Wliat local organization ?
Mr. Whisner. Westinghouse. We had no union at our plant at
that time. We had a couple of company unions prior to that time,
but in 1934 we didn't have any union. In fact, we hardly had any-
body in Westinghouse. We were in bad shape.
Mr. Tavenner. Wasn't there a local of Friends of the Soviet Union
at that place?
Mr. Whisner. At Turtle Creek?
Mr. Tavenner. At Westinghouse.
Mr. Whisner. Not that I know of.
Mr. Tavenner. I desire to offer the leaflet in evidence; mark it
"Exhibit Whisner 2."
Mr. Wood. It will be admit^^ed."
Mr. Tavenner. I show you another leaflet which states :
Join in the reception of our worker's delegation just returned from the Soviet
Union.
It contains the name of an electrical worker, R. Whisner. This
leaflet was also distributed by the New York district, Friends of the
Soviet Union, and it says :
Hear reports of five persons on what they saw as delegates in the Soviet Union.
Among the five delegates your name appears.
Mr. Scribner. Is that the leaflet that includes Judge Tulin?
Mr. Tavenner. Yes.
Mr. Whisner. To the best of my knowledge I only spoke once in
Irving Plaza Hall. Is this the same meeting?
Mr. Tavenner. Yes. You were in some doubt as to whether or not
you were a member, and I asked you to look at that reference to your
being a delegate and state whether or not you were a delegate in the
Friends of the Soviet Union.
Mr. Whisner. You mean I was a member of the Friends of the
Soviet Union? Is that what you are trying to establish?
^ Mr. Tavenner. That is what I am trying to refresh your recollec-
tion about.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Whisner, you stated a while ago you were in doubt
as to whether or not you were a member of that organization. These
documents are for the purpose of refreshing your recollection. After
looking at them, are you still in doubt as to whether or not you were
a member of that organization ?
Mr. Whisner. Yes, I am still in doubt. I don't see here that I am
a member of FSU. It advertises a meeting and says I am to speak.
1 was in that delegation ; yes.
*« See appendix, p. 650, Whisner exhibit 2.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 625
Whisnek Exhibit No. 2
Members of Trade Unions!
Members of the Socialist Party!
HEAR
Reports of
Fred Gunner
V. Modjesky
•>f America.
I
Philadelphia, Pa. Member of So- I
cialist Party. Member of Local 706,
Branch I of the American Federa-
tion of Full Fashioned Hosiery
Workers, an A. F. of L. Union.
Pawtucket, R. I. Local Organizer
of Socialist Party in Pawtucket.
Member of the United Textile
Julius Walstad,
Claire City, South Dakota. Vice-
President of the Farmers National
Committee of Action. State Sec-
retar>' of the United Farmers
League.
Robert Whisner,
Turtit Creek, Pa. Westinghouse
^vorker, elected at meeting called
at Turtle Creek, a Westinghouse
Company city.
J. W.Sheffield, Jr.
Bostor, Mass. Seaman from the
coalbotts plying in and out of
Bostoi.
COME AND LISTEN TO
OUR BROTHERS WHO
JUST RETURNED FROM
THE SOVIET UNION
■where they were sent as Delegates
by their respective Locals.
Wednesday, December 12 th
8:30 p. m.
Irving Plaza Hall
Irving Place and 1 5 th Street
The Workers' Delegation wil! arrive December tlth
and will leave New York City December 13 th in order
to make reports tc their respective Locals. We have
arranged this meeting, so as to enable the workers of
Ne^v York City to get correct information from eye-
witnesses as to conditions of the Tt'orkers in the Soviet
Union — in the factories and shops, as to their condi-
tions and cultural development.
^iispics: NEW YORK DISTRICT, FRIENDS OF THE SOVIET UNION, 799 Broadway
REA3 AND SUBSCRIBE TO "SOVIET RUSSIA TODAY"
Mr. Wood. If an organization of my church would refer to me as
"brother" you would infer I was a member, would you not ?
Mr. Whisner. It would seem so, but it wouldn't have to be.
Mr. Walter. Who prepared those circulars, if you know ?
Mr. Whisner. I don't know. It tells you on here, Friends of the
Soviet Union. I had nothing to do with these leaflets.
Mr. Wood. But I understand you did appear at the meeting and
address it?
626 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Mr. Whisner, I appeared at that one meeting. I think it was the
next night after the boat came in.
Mr. Case. Where is the Irving Phiza Hall ? Is it in New York?
Mr. Whisner. It is in New York. I wouldn't be able to tell you
where.
Mr. Case. Did you go to your home after your return to this country,
or did you attend that meeting while you were still in New York ?
Mr. Whisner. I attended that meeting while I was still in New
York, then I went home.
Mr. Tavenner. I desire to offer that leaflet in evidence, mark it
"Exhibit Whisner 3."
Mr. Wood. It will be admitted."
Mr. Tavenner. I call your attention to the fact that at the bottom
of each of those circulars appears the number 209. Do you know
what that refers to ?
Mr. Whisner. I don't know what that 209 means at all. It looks
to me like a union button.
Mr. Walter. That merely indicates it was printed in a union shop ?
Mr. Whisner. Yes.
Mr. Tavenner. Is that a union shop which prints Communist
material ; do you know ?
Mr. Whisner. I don't know.
Mr. Tavenner. Your counsel made reference to this leaflet con-
taining the name of Pat Toohey.
Mr. ScRiBNER. I made reference to Judge Tulin. He was a judge
in New York at that time.
Mr. Tavenner. I misunderstood you. I notice the chairman of that
meeting was Pat Toohey. Is he the same person who was organizer
of the Communist Party in eastern Pennsylvania; do you know?
Mr. Whisner. I couldn't tell you. All I can tell you is that Toohey
was at that meeting.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you know if he is the same person who was a
member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in 1936,
and a candidate for State treasurer of Pennsylvania on the Com-
munist Party ticket in 1936 ? ^^
Mr. Whisner. No, sir. I wasn't that much interested to go into
that kind of stuff.
(Representative Harrison leaves.)
Mr. Tavenner. I now show you a copy of the magazine entitled
"Soviet Russia Today," the special Lenin issue of January 1935,
which, on page 19, carries a letter entitled "U. S. S. R. Points Way
for American Workers." The letter appears over your name, Robert
Whisner, Westinghouse Electrical Works, Turtle Creek, Pa. In this
letter, in the last paragraph, the statement appears :
I am now convinced that it is the duty of every worker in the U. S. A. to defend
the U. S. S. R. in every way possible, for the Soviet workers have shown us the
way out.
Is that your letter ?
^' See appendix, p. 650, Whisner exhibit 3.
«The Daily Worlver of September 28, 1935, p. 3, and October 11, 1935, p. 2, shows Pat
Toohey as district orf^anizer of tlie Communist Party, United States of America, in Phila-
delphia : the Daily Worker of November 3, 1936, p. 2, shows Pat Toohey as candidate for
Pennsylvania State treasurer on the Communist Party ticket ; the Daily Worker of No-
vember 28, 1936, p. 5, shows Pat Toohey as a member of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party.
nOMMTTlSTTST TNFTT.TRATIOIST OF T;AROR TTNTONa 627
Whisner Exhibit No 3
join
in the reception of our
Worker's Delegation
Just returned from the Sotiet Union
Wednesday, December 12th
8:30 P. M.
IRVING PLAZA HALL
Irving Place and I3th Street
Hear JUSTINE WISE TULIN
speak on "SIGNIFICANCE OF TRADE UNION
DELEGATIONS TO THE SOVIET UNION"
Reports of:
Textile Worker— V. MODJESKY
(Endorsed by the Socialist Party Local of Pawtucket )
Hosiery Worker — F. GUNSSER
Electrical Worker— R. WEISNER
Seaman — J. W. SHEFFIELD
F a r m e r — J. WALSTAD
on what they saw as Delegates in the Soviet Union
Chairman: PAT TOOHEY
F. S. U. Balalaika Orchestra
Admission 10c
Auspices: New^ York District, Friends of the Soviet Union
For correct information Read and Subscribe to SOVIET RUSSIA TODAY
628 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Mr. Whisner. Well, it is over my signature. It is not my signature,
but I think I had something to do with that article, and, I tell you,
my opinions today have not changed much from what they were then.
I don't think we ought to be enemies with the Soviet Union. To me
they were friendly people. They were working people like we are,
trying to get along.
Mr. Wood. The question is, Are you the author of that letter?
Mr. Whisner. I would say I had something to do with it, but it was
a long time ago. They asked us for a statement when we came back.
The date of it is what ?
Mr. Wood. 1935.
Mr. Walter. You say "they" asked for a statement. To whom do
you refer ?
Mr. Whisner. The Friends of the Soviet Union asked each of us
for a statement.
Mr. Tavenner. This letter appears in a document printed in
Russia?
Mr. Whisner. No. That was printed in the United States.
Mr. Scribner. I think counsel sliould be accurate in what he says,
Mr. Wood. He is not making a statement. He is asking the question.
Mr. Scribner. It is absolutely misleading.
Mr. Wood. You may advise with your client.
Mr. Scribner. I would like to advise with him, because he has been
very frank
Mr. Wood. Advise your client. We don't care to hear any argu-
ments.
(Counsel confers with the witness.)
Mr. Scribner. While I was conversing with my client, the hearing
reporter was taking notes.
The Reporter. Mr. Chairman, I was making a notation that counsel
was conferring with the witness.
Mr. Wood. And, Mr. Counsel, I will say for your benefit that the
reporter taking this testimony is not connected with the committee.
Mr. Scribner. I was not suggesting that. I was making the ob-
servation.
Mr. Whisner. Counsel advises that this thing has taken on the
proportions of a frame-up, and I will stand on my constitutional
rights under the first and fifth amendments.
Mr. Wood. Just a moment. Your statement that it has taken on
the proportions of a frame-up is entirely inaccurate. There is nothing
of that kind. If you desire to answer the C[uestion you may do so.
Mr. Whisner. It looks like you are trying to get me into a political
discussion, and I would prefer you talk to somebody who knows more
about it, because I am not too well versed in communism. All I know
is that I took that trip.
Mr. Wood. Nobody knows more about whether you are the author
of that article than you do.
Mr. Whisner. I said I thought I had something to do with it. My
signature is not on there. I am trying to be as honest as I can.
Mr. Wood. I believe you say, since you read it, that you still sub-
scribe to it ?
Mr. Whisner. No. I haven't seen this book for years and years.
Mr. Wood. What about the article that is over your name?
Mr. Scribner. I will advise the witness
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 629
Mr. Wood. You may advise him.
Mr. ScRiBNER. That this is now a motion
Mr. Wood. Advise him quietly.
(Counsel confers with the witness.)
Mr. Whisner. Under the first and fifth amendments of the Consti-
tution of the United States, Mr. Chairman, I don't think I will go
any further with this here right now.
Mr. Wood. Wliat "further" do you mean ?
Mr. Wiiisnj;r. I won't allow you fellows to drive me into a dis-
cussion here that might incriminate me.
Mr. Wood. Is anybody trying to do that to you ?
Mr. ScRiBNER. If I might say, there are 12 people under indictment
now in New York for being Communists, or thinking as Communists.
Mr. Wood. You can confer with your client. I will have to ask
you to leave the room if you do not observe the rules.
Mr. WiiisNER. Mr. Chairman, it looks like a job is being done on
me here. I don't like it.
Mr. Wood. I asked you a simple question. You can answer or
decline to answer, as you see fit. Do you today subscribe to the article
that has been shown to you in the magazine, over your name ?
Mr. Whisner. No; I don't subscribe to this today, because it does
not fit in with the conditions today. We had 16,000,000 people unem-
ployed at the time I was over there, and I felt the workers over there
were better off than here, but now things are better here and everybody
has a little more money, so I don't subscribe to it.
Mr. Wood. At that time did you subscribe to the statements con-
tained in that article?
Mr. Whisner. At that time there was a lot of unemployment and
poverty and I didn't think there was much difference between the
American worker and the Russian worker.
Mr. Wood. You have read that last paragraph?
Mr, Whisner. Yes.
Mr, Wood. At that time did that reflect your sentiments?
Mr. Whisner. Yes, I think it is the duty of everybody
Mr. Wood. I just asked you if at that time it reflected your senti-
ments. Is that the way you felt about it at that time ?
Mr. Whisner. Yes.
Mr. Case. May we have that last paragraph read ?
Mr. Whisner. Do you want me to read it ?
Mr. ScRiBNER. It is in the record. I don't know why you want
Mr. Whisner to read it, but it is all right.
Mr, Wood. Let Mr. Case read it.
Mr. Case. This is the last paragraph of the letter which has been
referred to. over the name of Robert Whisner, Westinghouse Electrical
Works, Turtle Creek, Pa. :
I am now convinced that it is the duty of every worker in the U. S. A. to defend
the U. S. S. R. in every way possible, for the Soviet workers have shown us the
way out.
That was your feeling about it at that time ?
Mr. Whisner. It must have been.
Mr. Case. Do you still have that feeling?
Mr. Whisner. I don't think we should go to war, no ; if that is what
YOU mean.
630 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Mr, Case. No ; I didn't mean that. I am not trying to lead you into
anything, nor is the committee. What we are trying to find out here
is the way in which communism works and operates, and that goes back
to how they may have operated to get some support here. You. may
or may not have been a Communist. I don't know. I am proceeding
in an exploratory way and give you an opportunity to say whether or
not now you feel the same way you did when you wrote that letter.
You have said at that time it represented your views. In the light of
your having said that, it seems to me you would want to state whether
or not it represents your views now.
Mr. Whisxer. I said it must have represented my views. I can't say
whether I wrote that or not. You don't have my signature there, you
know.
Mr. Case. Wouldn't you like to say now whether or not that repre-
sents your views today ?
Mr. Whisner. No ; I wouldn't like to say that. We are living in a
state of hysteria, and I think I am protected by the Constitution.
Mr. Case. You think it is better for the record to show that at the
time this appeared it represented your views, and as of today you don't
want to disavow those views ?
Mr. ScRiBNER. I think it is improper to continue this line of ques-
tions, in view of the fact this witness has stated his position under the
Constitution.
Mr. Moulder. Mr. Chairman, will we have a recess ?
In consideration of the fact this witness, and other witnesses this
morning, made very serious charges against this committee, charging
the committee with interfering with union elections and trying to
smear the witnesses here today, and they also said they were represent-
ing the workingmen's interests, as one member of the committee — and
I am sure I am joined by all members of the committee, we are all inter-
ested in the workingman — I think the record will show I have always
favored the workingman. But we are opposed to the infiltration of
communism in organized labor, and wish to do everything possible to
prevent Communists from taking over organized labor in this country.
I would like the record to show my sentiments.
Mr. Walter. You stated that upon your return from this trip to
Russia, "we were asked to write our views." Who asked you to express
your views?
Mr. Whisner. One of the officials of FSU. I don't remember who
it was. This was too long ago.
Mr. Wood. I believe counsel said he had one more question.
Mr. Tavenner. There is an article entitled "The FSU in Action,"
appearing on page 21 of the December 1934 issue of Soviet Russia To-
day, a paragraph of which, headed "Return of the Delegation," reads
as follows :
Our delegates are returning on December 11 after a 5-week stay in the Soviet
Union and meetings are now being arranged for them in a number of cities.
The first of these will be a welcome meeting held in New York City at Irving
Plaza on December 12. All meetings for the returning delegates should be utilized
for the launching of the campaign for our May 1 delegation, directions for which
will be sent to the branches shortly.
Does that not refresh your recollection further as to your membership
in the organization of Friends of the Soviet Union ?
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 631
Mr. Whisner. No, sir ; it does not.
Mr. Ta\^nner. Did you participate in a plan to speak in various
cities, places other than the city of New York?
Mr. WiiisNER. I never spoke in any city outside of New York and
Pittsburgh, and I would like to stand on my constitutional rights here
at this time and refrain from incriminating myself.
Mr. Wood. The committee has no further questions to ask you. You
may be excused.
Mr. Whisner. Can I say a few words? I would like to say for the
record that I tried to do an honest job here, and I can't understand
why, at this time, when our elections are going on, this thing is brought
out and rehashed. It should have been done 15 years ago if something
was wrong with it.
Mr. Wood. I think myself it should have been brought out 15 years
ago.
Mr. TA^^ENNER. Mr. Chairman, I offer the January 1935 issue of
Soviet Russia Today in evidence, and ask that it be marked "Exhibit
Whisner 4;" and I offer the December 1934 issue of Soviet Russia
Today in evidence, and ask that it be marked "Exhibit Whisner 5."
Mr. Wood. Without objection, they will be received.^^
The committee stands adjourned until tomorrow morning at 10 : 30.
( Wliereupon, at 5 : 10 p. m. an adjournment was taken until Thurs-
day, August 11, 1949, at 10 : 30 a. m.)
1* See appendix, p. 650, Whisner exhibits 4 and 5.
heaeinctS regarding communist infiltration
of labor unions-part i
(Local 601, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of
America, CIO, Pittsburgh, Pa.)
THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 1949
United States House of Representative's,
Subcommittee of the Committee
ON Un-American Activities,
Washington^ D. C.
A subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities met,
pursuant to call, at 10 : 50 a. m. in room 220, Old House Office Building,
Hon. John S. Wood (chairman) presidinjij.
Committee members i)resent : Re]>iesentatives John S. Wood (chair-
man), Francis E. Walter, Burr P. Harrison, and Harold H. Velde.
Staff members present: Frank S. Tavenner, Jr., counsel; Louis J.
Russell, senior investigator; Donald T. Appell, investigator; John W.
Carrington, clerk; Benjamin Mandel, director of research; and A. S.
Poore, editor.
Mr. Wood. Let the committee be in order.
This hearing is being conducted today by a subcommittee composed
of Messrs. Walter, Harrison, Velde, and Wood. Mr. Walter, Mr.
Harrison, and Mr. Wood are present.
(Representative Velde enters.)
Mr. Wood. Also Mr. Velde is present.
Are you ready to proceed ?
Mr. Tavenner. Yes, sir. Mr. Thomas Quinn.
Mr. Wood. Will you hold up your right hand, please. You sol-
emnly swear the evidence you give to this subcommittee will be the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
Mr. Quinn. I do.
Mr. Wood. Have a seat.
TESTIMONY OF THOMAS QUINN
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Quinn, are you represented by counsel?
Mr. Quinn. I have counsel available. I don't feel that I am on
trial, but if the turn of events seems to indicate that, I may call for
counsel.
Mr. Taat:nner. I merely mention it so that you may understand
you have the right to consult counsel at any time you may desire in
the course of your testimon3^
Mr. Quinn. Thank you.
Mr. Tavenner. Will you please state your full name?
95613 — 49— pt. 1 7 633
634 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Mr. QuiNN. Thomas Quinn.
Mr. Tavexner. What is your place of residence ?
Mr. Quinn. 201 Beach Street, East Pittsburgh.
Mr. Tavenner. When and where were you born?
Mr. Quinn. Pittsburgh, Pa., August 10, 1917.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you appear here as a witness before the com-
mittee in pursuance to a subpena served on you on August 3, 1949 ?
Mr. Quinn. I do.
Mr. Tavenner. Where are you presently employed?
Mr. Quinn. I am presently employed by the International Union
of the United Electrical, Eadio and Machine Workers. I am on leave
of absence from the Westinghouse Electric Corp.
Mr. Tavenner. In what capacity are you employed by the union?
Mr. Quinn. As a field organizer.
Mr. Tavenner. Is that a field organizer of the local, or of the na-
tional organization?
Mr. Quinn. The national organization.
Mv. Tavenner. Are you also a member of local 601 ?
Mr. Quinn. I am.
Mr. Tavenner. How long have you been a member?
Mr. Quinn. Since 1940.
Mr. Tavenner. Will you please state for the record, in chronological
order, the various positions that you have held in that union ?
Mr. Quinn. In local 601 ?
Mr. Tavenner. Yes.
Mr. Quinn. I was a section steward from 1944 until 1947.
Mr, Tavenner, Have you held any other positions than the one you
have mentioned in the parent organization?
Mr. Quinn. I was a district representative working in district 6
from 1947 until 1949.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you hold any position in the Civil Rights Con-
gress at the present time ?
Mr. Quinn. I am chairman of the Western Pennsylvania Civil
Rights Congress.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you hold any position in the East Pittsburgh
section of the Communist Party?
Mr. Quinn. No ; I don't.
Mr. Ta^t.nner. Are you now or have you ever been a member of the
Communist Party ?
Mr. Quinn. I would like to make a statement along the lines that
Mr. Fitzpatrick made yesterday in regard to a question of that nature,
I feel that the political beliefs, opinions, and associations of the Amer-
ican people can be held secret if they so desire.
Mr. Wood. And for those reasons do you decline to answer that
question ?
Mr. Quinn. I didn't say I was declining to answer the question.
Before I do answer the question I should like to say that I support the
position taken by Brother Fitzpatrick yesterday.
Mr. Wood. Did you hear his statement yesterday?
Mr. Quinn. Yes ; I did.
Mr, Wood. Do you support it in its entirety ?
Mr. Quinn. In its entirety.
Mr. Wood. Is there anything else you want to add to it ?
Mr. Quinn. No ; I don't.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATIOivr OF LABOR UNIONS 635
Mr. Wood. Will you accept it as the expression of your views, then?
Iklr. QuiNN. You may. I may add I feel I have no other choice
in this matter, because the defense of the Constitution, I hold sacred.
I don't feel I am hidino- behind the Constitution, but in this case I
am standing before it, defending it, as small as I am.
Mr. Wood. Having made that statement and subscribed to the
sentiments expressed by the witness yesterday to whom you referred,
will you now answer the question wdiether you ai*e now^ or have ever
been a member of the Communist Party?
Mr. QuiNN. I hold that the Constitution holds sacred the rights of
people
Mr. Wood. You have stated your position. Having enunciated
your sentiments and your position, will you now answer the question
whether you are now or ever have been a member of the Communist
Party, or do you decline to answer?
INIr. QuiNN. I decline to discuss with the committee questions of
that nature.
Mr. Wood. Proceed, Mr. Tavenner.
Mv. Tavenner. I believe in the light of that answer it is not neces-
sary to ask you any further questions relating to those matters, so I
will ask you this : Do you know Mr. James J. Matles?
Mr. QuiNN. Yes.
Mr. Tavenner. What positirn does he hold in this union?
Mr. QuiNN. He is director of organization.
Mr. Tavenner. For the parent organization?
Mr. QuiNN. For the international union.
Mr. Tavenner. And Mr. Julius Emspak, vphat position does he
hold, do you know^ ?
Mr. Quinn. Secretary-treasurer.
Mr. Tavenner. And Mr. James Lustig, what position does he hold?
Mr. Quinn. I don't know Mr. James Lustig.
Mr. Wood. Spell it, Mr. Counsel.
Mr. Tavenner. L-u-s-t-i-g.
Mr. Quinn. I don't know him.
Mr. Tavenner. I have no further questions.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Walter.
Mr. Walter. No quastions.
Mr. Wood. ]Mr. Harrison.
Mr. Harrison. I have no questions.
]VIi\ Wood. Mr. Velde.
Mr. Velde. Are you acquainted with Mr. Steve Nelson ?
Mr. Quinn. I am not.
Yestei'day one of the Congressmen on the committee made the state-
ment that people brought down here were being given an opportunity
to clear tliemselves, as it were. I would like to say I don't feel it is
an opportunity to clear myself. I feel the opportunity I am given
here is a choice of clearing myself at the price of assisting this com-
mittee and destroying the Constitution, and I could not join the com-
mittee in doing that.
Mr. Wood. You have made quite clear your position. T, for one,
do not agree with it, but I appreciate your forthrightness in stating
it to us.
636 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Mr, QuiNN. I think it is clear this hearing was called solely for
the purpose of interfering with our election.
Mr. Wood. I concede you have the right to have that opinion.
Mr. QuiNN. The Pittsburgh papers yesterday indicated that clearly.
I would like to call attention to an article that appeared in the Pitts-
burgh Post-Gazette yesterday. It was written by Ingrid Jewell, who
is sitting back here.
Mr. Wood. There is nothing in the newspapers that emanates from
this committee.
Mr. QuiNN. The thing I wanted to point out
Mr. Wood. You can't charge against this committee or its activities
anything a newspaper says, so I am not going to permit you to read
into the record anything from a newspaper.
Mr. QuiNN. Very well.
Mr. Wood. You will be excused.
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Russell.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Russell was sworn in this hearing previously?
Mr. Tavenner. Yes.
TESTIMONY OF LOUIS J. RUSSELI^-Recalled
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Russell, as the senior investigator of this com-
mittee, did you, in the course of your investigation, arrange for the
taking of several affidavits to be presented to this committee?
Mr. Russell. Yes, sir.
Mr. Tavenner. The first, I believe, is the affidavit of Mr. Clarence
Copeland. Do you have that affidavit ?
Mr. Russell. No. It was read into the record yesterday.
(The affidavit referred to was produced by the reporter.)
Mr. Tavenner. I don't believe it was read in full. Will you read
the affidavit into the record, please ?
Mr. Russell. Yes, sir :
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
County of Westmorcla7id, ss:
Before me, a notary public, in and for said county and State, personally
appeared Clarence D. Copeland, who, first being duly sworn according to law,
doth depose and say, that he is a citizen of the United States of America and a
resident of the city of Jeannette, Pa.; that he knows Thomas J. Fitzpatrick,
chief steward of local No. 601, United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of
America; that he has known the said Thomas J. Fitzpatrick for approximately
the last 10 years; that sometime during the fall of the year 1943, the said
Thomas J. Fitzpatrick gave to and requested that he, the said Clarence D. Cope-
land, sign an applicaticm and join the Communist Party: that he. the said Clar-
ence D. Copeland, refused to sign said application or join the said Communist
Clakence D. Copeland.
Sworn to and subscribed to before me this 6th day of August A. D. 1949.
l-gEAL] CaKL M. SEILER,
Notmy Public.
My commission expires February 1, 1953.
Mr. Tavenner. I desire to offer that affidavit in evidence and mark
it exhibit Russell 4.
Mr. Wood. Without objection it will be received.-"
Mr. Tavenner. It was testified yesterday morning that Mr. Hugh
Harley is the international organizer of the United Electrical, Radio
20 See appendix, p. 651, Russell exhibit 4.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 637
and Machine Workers of America. Do you have an aflidavit relating
to him ?
Mr. RussEiJL. Yes.
Mr. Tavenner. Whose affidavit is it?
Mr. Russell. Richard AV. McClellan.
Mr. Tavenner. Will you read it?
Mr. Russell. Yes, sir.
State of Pennsylvania,
County of Erie ss:
I, Richard W. McClellan, being duly sworn, depose and say :
( 1 ) That I was president of local 631, United Electrical Workers of America
at the Erie Resistor Co. ;
(2) I was elected to that office on or about January 17, 1943, and held that
office until my resignation in April 1945;
(3) I was instrumental in affiliating the Erie Resistor Co. union with the
UE-CIO. In my work with the UE-CIO, I became acquainted with and worked
closely with Hugh Harley. Harley was an international organizer of the UE.
Harley informed me that he was a member of the Communist Party and showed
me his dues book as such member. At the invitation of Harley I attended meet-
ings of the Communist cells in the city of Erie. I attended a meeting in the
summer of 1943 at a house located on the southwest corner of Twenty-fifth and
Penn.sylvania Avenue in the second floor flat in the evening. This meeting was a
meeting of the General Electric cell of the Communist Party. At the meeting was
held a discussion of the party platform. Communist literature was sold and
Communist dues were collected. John Nelson, the present president of local
506, who was then also a shop stewai-d at the General Electric, was present at
that meeting, took part in the discussion, bought Communist literature and paid
party dues. I saw him pay the dues to a woman who was in charge of the
meeting and acted as chairman.
Richard W, IMcClellan.
Sworn to and subscribed before me this 12th day of May, 1949.
[seal] John W. English,
Notary Public.
My commission expires April 27, 1953.
Mr. Ta\t2nner. I desire to offer that affidavit in evidence and mark
it exhibit Russell 5.
Mr. Wood. Witliout objection it will be received.^^
Mr. Tavenner. That is all.
I would like to call now, Mr. Kornfeder.
Mr. Wood. Mr, Kornfeder, you were sworn before in this hearing
in connection with your previous testimony, were you not?
Mr. Kornfeder. Yes, sir.
TESTIMONY OF JOSEPH ZACK KORNFEDER— Recalled
Mr. Ta\t:nner. Mr. Kornfeder, you have previously testified in this
hearing, have you not ?
Mr. Kornfeder. I have.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you know Mr. James J. Matles, who is an inter-
national organizer for the United Electrical, Radio and Machine
Workers ?
Mr. Kornfeder. I do.
Mr. Tavenner. How long have you known him?
Mr. Kornfeder. I have Imown him since 1925?
Mr. Taatenner. Are you familiar with any Communist activities on
his part?
" See appendix, p. 651, Rnssell exhibit 5.
638 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Mr. KoRNFEDER. I am.
Mr. Tavenner. Will you state to the committee just what you know
of your own personal knowledge?
Mr. Kornfedee. Well, I was a member of the district committee of
the Communist Party, district No. 2, in New York State, and he was
a member of the district committee at the same time with me. He
was also the organization secretary of the district committee of the
Communist Party at that time.
Mr. Wood. Do you remember the year or years that was ?
Mr. Kornfeder. I refer specifically to this instance to 1931 and
1932.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you know what position Matles holds nx)w, if
any, in the Communist Part}^ ?
Mr. Kornfeder. I do not.
Mr. Taatenner. Do you know what position he now holds with the
union?
Mr. Kornfeder. Yes. He is organization secretary of the interna-
tional union.
Mr. Tavenner. Will you state to the committee what you know of
the activities of Matles in the Communist Party?
Mr. Kornfeder. Well, during my membership as a member of the
district committee of the New York district, I was at the same time the
general secretary of the Trade Union Unity Council, central bodj'^ of
all unions controlled by the Communist Party in that area, and James
Matles was then a member of the leading fraction of what was then
known as the Steel and Metal Workers' Industrial Union.
The Steel and Metal Workers' Industrial Union was a union affiliated
with the Trade Union Unity League, a national labor-union front for
the Communist Party.
Upon my initiative as a member of the district committee, he was
assigned to be secretary of the New York committee of the Steel and
Metal Workers' Industrial Union. James Matles also had a number
of other assignments. His assignments, as I remember them at this
time, were to represent the district committee of the Communist Party,
New York district, to a number of Communist Party fractions like the
Communist Party fraction in the International Typographical Union,
Local 6, I believe; and the Communist Party fraction in the food
workers ; and a number of other fractions of the Communist Party
inside of American Federation of Labor unions and inside of unions
outside of the American Federation of Labor.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you know Julius Emspak ?
(Representative Moulder enters.)
Mr. Kornfeder. I cannot say that I do not know him
Mr. Wood. Let the record show that Mr. Moulder is present.
Mr. Kornfeder. But I do not recall specific instances of my rela-
tions with him while I was an official of the Communist Party.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you know James Lustig ?
Mr. Kornfeder. Yes, I do.
Mr. Tavenner. Was he a member of the Communist Party ?
Mr. Kornfeder. Yes, he was.
Mr. Tavenner. Will you state t/) the committee what you know
regarding his activities in the Communist Party?
Mr. Kornfeder. Wliile I was in charge for the Communist Party
of labor union activities in the New York district, there was great
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 639
need for able individuals to carry on this type of activity, so I requisi-
tioned James Lustig, who was then active in the Bronx section of the
Communist Party, and had him assigned to the Steel and Metal
Workers' Industrial Union for activity. During that entire period
that I was in charge of this type of activities in the New York area,
he worked under my direction.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you recall anything else regarding his activities
in the Communist Party ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. Well, he was, prior to that assignment, active in
a strike of hosiery workers across the river in New Jersey, which was
then led by the Communists ; and I also recall him as business manager
of the Hungarian Communist paper UG Elore. He also was the
section organizer of the Communist Party in the Bronx.
Mr. Tavenner. Do you know in what work he is now engaged?
Mr. Kornfeder. So far as I know he is in charge of the New York
district of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers.
Mr. Tavenner. I have no further questions, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Walter.
Mr. Walter. A moment ago you spoke of the unions' control by the
Communists. To what extent was that control exercised, and how?
Mr. Kornfeder. At that time the Communist activities in labor
miions were along two lines. One was iniiltration into the American
Federation of Labor, which was mostly in the form of secret Com-
munist groups inside the local unions of the American Federation
of Labor.
Mr. Walter. Did those secret groups attempt to elect the officers
and thereby capture control ?
Mr. Kornfeder. Yes ; to get control of the principal offices was one
of the main objectives. Another activity at that time was to set up
unions outside of the American Federation of Labor.
Mr. Walter. I would like to direct your attention at that point to
the attempted infiltration and control of the American Federation of
Labor unions. How successful was that attempt ?
Mr. Kornfeder. It was successful in quite a number of instances.
It was successful among the food workers and the painters, and was
partly successful among some of the local unions of the building
trades.
Mr. Walter. Do you have any idea what percentage of the mem-
bership of those unions was recruited into the Communist Party ?
Mr. Kornfeder. The percentage of recruitment into the party was
relatively small, but the recruitment of sympathizers was more
successful.
Mr. Wood. You started to say something about unions outside the
American Federation of Labor.
Mr. Kornfeder. Yes. That was in the form of a national organi-
zation then known as the Trade Union Unity League. The Trade
Union Unity League was affiliated with the Red International of Labor
Unions, which had its headquarters in Moscow. The Trade Union
Unity League would organize unions independent of the American
Federation of Labor along the lines of an industrial pattern, that is,
to take in everybody in a plant or shop, irrespective of crafts. These
were unions that were, from the ground up, set up by the initiative of
the Communist Party, and that was the case with the Steel and Metal
640 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Workers' Industrial Union, which in time became the basis for the
United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers.
Mr. Wood. To what extent was the effort made to invade the textile
industry successful ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. lu the textile industry they had a union known as
the National Union of Textile Workers. That is the one that con-
ducted some strikes down South. One of the most known strikes was
the strike in Gastonia.
Mr. Wood. North Carolina?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. That is right.
Mr. Wood. Were they also connected with the disturbances in a
place known as Honea Path, S. C. ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. That is right.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Walter.
Mr. Walter. So that from its inception, the United Electrical
Workers Union was Communist-dominated?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. Yes. It was set up by them.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Harrison.
Mr. Harrison. No questions.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Moulder.
Mr. Moulder. No questions.
Mr. Wood. Mr. Velde.
Mr. Velde. No questions.
Mr. Wood. Wliile you were attending the school at Moscow — which
one did you attend ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. Leuiu School in Moscow.
Mr. Wood. I believe you testified there were quite a large number
of people, at the time you were in Moscow, training in the various
schools you enumerated in your testimony the other day when you
were on the stand before, and you said that quite a few of those were
from America ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. That is right.
Mr. Wood. How long were you there ?
Mr. Kornfeder. I was there from October 1927 until May 1930.
That is over 21/2 years.
Mr. Wood. During the time you were in Russia, were there any
political elections held there?
Mr. Kornfeder. Oh, yes.
Mr. Wood. Were members attending these schools from other coun-
tries permitted to participate in those elections ?
Mr. Kornfeder. Yes, they were allowed to participate in the elec-
tion of delegates to the Moscow Soviet. At that time elections took
place on the basis of factories, offices, and institutions, and the mem-
bers of the Lenin School, that is, the trainees, had one or two dele-
gates to the Moscow Soviet which they elected right on the premises
of the Lenin School in the large assembly hall.
Mr. Wood. What is the Soviet ? Does that correspond to the leg-
islative body ?
Mr. Kornfeder. The Moscow Soviet is like a city council.
Mr. Wood. Did the trainees in those schools participate in those
elections ?
Mr. Kornfeder. Yes.
Mr. Wood. Actually voted in them?
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 641
Mr. KoRNFEDER. That is right.
Mr- Wood. Were there any elections involving the national gov-
ernment ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. There is no direct voting for national officials of
the Soviet Union. There was not at that time. The procedure there
is to elect delegates to a local Soviet, and they in turn elect delegates
to what you may call a state soviet, and from there on to the national
soviet, and the national soviet elects what was then known as the
People's Commissars, and they in turn elect the Chairman, President,
and so on.
Mr. Wood. Then the delegates to the Moscow Soviet, who were
chosen in the elections in which the students and trainees participated,
ultimately had a voice in the selection of delegates to the State Soviet?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. That is right.
Mr. Wood. And thence to the national Commissar?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. That is right.
Mr. Wood. Would you say, then, in view of the participation of
the trainees in those schools in the elections, that they had the same
rights and privileges, and exercised them, as other citizens of Russia?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. They certainly did.
Mr. Wood. And did they exercise those rights and participate in
those elections?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. Ycs, tlicy did.
Mr. Wood. That is all.
Mr. Velde. Did the United States citizens who attended this Lenin
school, in your opinion, contemplate returning to the United States
after finishing their education ?
Mr. KoKNFEDER. Oh, yes. They were there for the purpose of re-
turning after they received the training to which they were assigned.
That was the entire purpose, to return for activity in their own
countries.
Mr. Veij)e. There were citizens from other countries besides the
United States attending these schools, I take it?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. YcS.
Mr. Velde. The idea was to conduct activities throughout the vari-
ous nations ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. That is right,
Mr. Velde. What were some of the subjects taught?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. Thesc schools were political warfare colleges. The
subjects taught there were the doctrines of the Communist movement,
based on the teachings of Karl Marx, Lenin, Stalin, and others; and
the method of Communist Party organization in all its ramifications,
based upon the experiences of the Communist Party in Russia and
some of the other major Communist Parties in other countries; and
techniques of labor union organization and infiltration ; techniques of
propaganda in the various fields in which Communists were su])posed
to be active ; and also, in the last 3 months — you see, I took a full-time
course — in the last 3 months the techniques of seizure of power, how
to capture a city, how to organize armed groups for that purpose, what
to take first in a plan to seize a city, what to do after a city is seized,
and so on. Of course, in all these subjects there was very much litera-
ture available, but you were not permitted to take any of that litera-
ture out of Russia. Those, in brief, are the subjects taught there dur-
ing a 3-year course.
642 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Mr. Velde. You recall the 5-year plan established in Russia. Were
you informed as to the reasons for that plan ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. Well, it was for the purpose of accelerating the
industrialization of Russia, and especially accelerating the building
of armament industries.
Mr. Velde. I have understood that the first 5-year plan was estab-
lished to educate the masses in Russia to the ways and principles of
communism, and that during this 5-year plan it was thought it was
necessary to have a very strong central government, in fact, a dicta-
torship, in order to teach the masses the doctrine of Marxism. Did
I get the right impression of the 5-year plan ?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. No, I am afraid you did not. The teaching of the
doctrine and philosophy of communism is a continuous process, every
day. That is the function of all the organs of the Communist Party
and of the government in Russia. The 5-year plan itself was primarily
for the purpose of building industry at a very rapid pace, irrespective
of what effort would be required on the part of the masses to do it,
that is, even if the standard of living had to go down in order for
industry to go at an accelerated pace, it was done, especially in the
armament industry. The theory at that time was that the whole world
is bent upon attacking Russux, and therefore everything has to be spent
in armament.
Mr. Velde. That necessarily would lead to a strong central govern-
ment, in order to promote increases in industrial facilities, wouldn't
it?
Mr. KoRNFEDER. Oh, yes. The processes of centralization of gov-
ernment progressed during the 5-year plan. In fact, the first part
of the 5-year plan was to change agriculture, abolish the individual
farm holdings, and create an organization which would permit the
central government to subject the farm population to their own dic-
tates. While I was there, the result was that supplies to the cities
began to dry up. Even the Lenin school began to cut down portions,
because the farmers resisted, and that created a food shortage for the
big cities. It was a very tragic situation at that time. That was
part of the 5-year plan, centralizing agriculture in the hands of the
government.
Mr. Velde. Were you acquainted with Anna Louise Strong?
Mr. Kornfeder. I know her ; yes.
Mr. Velde. I wonder if you feel that the Russian Government to-
day is actually based on the Marxist principles of communism?
Mr. Kornfeder. Marx conceived a collectivism which was much
more democratic than the one that has been implanted in Russia. Of
course Marx did not have to run a government, but his theoretical con-
ception was a democratic collectivism instead of a super-centralized
autocracy such as Russia actually is today.
Mr. Wood. Thank you very much, Mr. Kornfeder.
Any further witnesses ?
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Russell.
Mr. Chairman, I thought it would be well to place in the record
in this hearing certain testimony that has been previously presented
to this committee, and material which is in our file, regarding James
J. Matles, Julius Emspak, and James Lustig.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 643
TESTIMONY OF LOUIS J. RUSSELL— Recalled
Mr. Tavenner. Will you give us a resume of the information con-
tained in our files and in previous hearings before this committee
with regard to James J. Matles?
Mr. Russell. Yes.
References to James J. Matles will be found on pages 42, 88, 104,
165, and 183 of report No. 1311 of the Special Committee on Un-
American Activities.
References to Mr. Matles will also be found by on pages 145, 153, 170,
176, 177, 200, 219, and 226 of the hearings regarding communism in
labor unions in the United States.
A leaflet entitled, "To the Delegates to the Emergency Peace Mobi-
lization," lists James J. Matles as a member of the national council
of that organization. The Emergency Peace Mobilization was cited
as a Communist-front organization by the Special Committee on Un-
American Activities in report 1311.
In tliis same Report No. 1311, the special committee revealed that
the Daily Worker, the Communist newspaper, "over a period of 20
years has published a larger volume of subversive, seditious, and trea-
sonable utterances than any other publication ever known in this
country." The December 6, 1933, March 21, 1934, and June 9, 1937,
issues of the publication contain articles written by Mr. Matles.
New Order of March 1938, page 8, lists Mr. Matles as a member of
the International Workers Order, an organization which has twice
been cited as a Communist front by the Special Committee on Un-
American Activities (reports of January 3, 1940, and June 25, 1942).
Attorney General Biddle called the organization "one of the strongest
Communist organizations" (Congressional Record, September 24,
1942, p. 7688) . The organization was also cited by Attorney General
Clark as "^nhversive and Communist in lists furnishpd to the Loyalty
Review Board, which were released to the press on December 4, 1947,
and September 21, 1948.
In lL'33, James Matles, secretary of the Steel and Metal Workers
Industrial Union, was reported to have endorsed the Communist
Party program. This claim was made in an article which appeared
in the Daily Worker of November 6, 1933, page 2.
In testimony before the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties on August 13, 1938, John P. Frey, president of the Metal Trades
Department of the American Federation of Labor, charged that James
Matles was a Communist.
On page 219 of the hearings regarding communism in labor
unions, Mr. Salvatore M. Vottis, a former Communist, testified under
oath that Mr. Matles was a member of the Communist Party.
That is all.
Mr. Tavenner. Now will you proceed with your resume as to Mr.
Julius Emspak?
Mr. Russell. In sworn testimony of Salvatore M. "Vottis before
this committee during the hearings regarding communism in labor
unions, he made the following statement concerning Julius Emspak
and James Matles :
Mr. Stripling. Is it your opinion that James Matles and Julius Emspak are
members of the Communist Party?
Mr. Vottis. Yes ; they both are members of the party, to my knowledge.
Mr. Stripling. You sat in meetings with them?
644 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Mr. VoTTis. I sat in meetings with them. They have met in my home as mem-
bers of the Communist Party. (See hearings regarding communism in labor
unions, p. 219.)
Eeport 1311 of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities,
dated March 29, 1944, contains a chapter dealing with the activities
of Julius Emspak, secretary-treasurer of the United Electrical, Radio,
and Machine Workers of America, CIO, beginning on page 103.
Julius Emspak has been affiliated with the National Federation
for Constitutional Liberties as one of the signers of a statement spon-
sored by that organization which hailed the War Department order
on commissions for Communists. (See Daily Worker of March 18,
1945, p. 2.)
The conjTressional Committee on Un-American Activities cited the
National Federation for Constitutional Liberties as being among a
"maze of organizations" which were "spawned for the alleged pur-
pose of defending civil liberties in general but actually intended to
protect Communist subversion from any penalties under the law"
(Eept. No. 1115, September 2, 1947, p. 3).
In a report dated March 29, 1944, page 50, of the Special Commit-
tee on Un-American Activities, it was stated that —
There can be no reasonable doubt about the fact that the National Federation
for Constitutional Liberties — regardless of its high-sounding name — is one of
the viciously subversive organizations of the Communist Party.
Attorney General Francis Biddle cited this group as —
part of what Lenin called the solar system of organizations, ostensibly having
no connection with the Communist Party, by which Communists attempt to
create sympathizers and supporters of their program * * *. (it) was estab-
lished as a result of a conference on constitutional liberties held in WashiuKton,
D. C, June 7-9, 1940 * * *. The defense of Communist leaders such as Sam
Darcy and Robert Wood, party secretaries for Pennsylvania and Oklahoma,
have been majoi- efforts of the federation. (See Congressional Record, Septem-
ber 24, 1942, p. 76S7.)
Attorney General Tom Clark cited this group as subversive and
Communist in lists furnished the Loyalty Review Board, which were
released to the press on December 4, 1947, and September 21, 1948.
According to the Daily Worker of March 5, 1946, Emspak was one
of the sponsors of the Win-the-Peace Conference which was held in
Washington, D. C, April 5-7, 1940.
Win-the-Peace Conference or National Committee to Win the Peace
was cited by Attorney General Tom Clark as subversive and Com-
munist in lists furnished the Loyalty Review Board, which were re-
leased to the press on December 4, 1947, and September 21, 1948.
Julius Emspak was one of the signers of the telegram sent to Presi-
dent Roosevelt by tlie Joint Committee for Trade-Union Rights in
behalf of the International Fur and Leather AYorkers Union, de-
fendants. (See Daily Worker of November 11, 1940, pp. 1 and 5.)
The Special Committee on Un-American Activities cited the Joint
Committee for Trade-Union Rights as a "Communist front which,
jointly with the International Labor Defense, supported and defended
Communist Party leaders of the International Fur and Leather Work-
ers Union when they were serving prison terms." (Report dated
March29, 1944,p. 102).
A letterhead, dated September 3, 1938, lists Julius Emspak as one
of the sponsors of the American Relief Ship for Spain.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 645
Tlie American Relief Ship for Spain was cited by the Special Com-
mittee on Un-American Activities as "one of the several Communist
Party front enterprises which raised funds for loyalist Spain (or
rather raised funds for the Communist end of that civil war)*' (Re-
port, March '2d, 1944, p. 102) .
Both a letterhead of September 28, 1939, and an undated circular
list Emspak as a member of the labor advisor}' committee of the Con-
sumers Union, an organization which was "'founded in the winter of
19;35— 3() and o;rew directly out of a strike at Consumers Research.
The Communist Party looked upon Arthur Kallet. founder of the
Consumers Union, as its chief representative in the party's effort to
exploit the n'rievances of consumers'" (Report 1311 of the Special Com-
mittee on Un-American Activities).
In testimony of Mr. Walter S. Steele before the Committee on Un-
American Activities, in July 1947. pajxe 14. we find Julius Emspak
listed as one of the initiators of the National Congress on Civil Rights
on April 27-28. 1946. at which the civil-rights congress was born. In
the committee's report on the civil-rights congress we find the follow-
ing reference to Julius Emspak :
JTember, initiatin,? committee of Civil-Rights Congress; cited by Louis F.
Budenz as "Comrade Juniper." a secret member of the Communist Party,
United States of America, in 1047; sponsor of the American Peace Mobilization
and its successor, the Win-the-Peace Conference.
Attorney General Tom Clark cited the Civil Rights Congress as sub-
versive and Communist in lists furnished to the Loyalty Review Board,
which were released to the press on December 4, 1947, and September
21, 1948. The congressional Committee on Un-American Activities
cited the Civil Rights Congress as an organization formed in April
1946 as a merger of two other Communist-front organizations — Inter-
national Labor Defense and the National Federation for Constitu-
tional Liberties — "dedicated not to the broader issues of civil liberties,
but specifically to the defense of individual Communists and the Com-
munist Party" and "controlled by individuals who are either members
of the Communist Party or openly loyal to it." (Report No. 1115,
September 2, 1947, pp. 2 and 19.)
Mr. Emspak is referred to on pages 145, 149, 151, 152, 153, 170, 172,
176, 195, 215, 217, 219 of hearings regarding communism in labor
unions.
Mr. Tavenner. Will you proceed as to James Lustig ?
Mr. Russell. In 1931 James Lustig was the Communist Party
candidate for alderman, Twenty-fifth District, Bronx County, N. Y,,
according to the Daily Worker of November 3, 1931, page 6. Reference
to his candidacy also appeared in the October 30, 1931 issue of this
same publication, page 2. According to the Daily Worker of Novem-
ber 6, 1933, page 2, James Lustig, as organizer of the Steel and Metal
Workers' Industrial Union, endorsed the Comnumist F'arty program.
James Lustig protested banning the Communist Party, according to
the Daily Worker of March 20, 1947, page 7. He participated in a
demonstration for Communist defendants held for deportation, ac-
cording to the March 5, 1948, issue of the Daily Worker, page 2.
Jmes Lustig was a member of the United May Day Provisional Com-
mittee in 1938, as shown in the Daily Worker of March 19, 1938, page
646 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
4 ; he was a member of the United May Day Provisional Committee in
1939, according to An American Holiday, May Day 1939, page 2 :
The May Day parade in New York City is an annual mobilization of Communist
strength. 1
Ferdinand Smith, high in the circles of the Communist Party, was a —
member of the United May Day Provisional Committee in 1939 * * * (Report
1311, March 29, 1944, Special Committee on Un-American Activities, p. 179).
The call to the United May Day Conference was signed by James
Lustig, according to the Daily Worker of March 19, 1988, page 4. The
Special Committee on Un-American Activities, in Report 1311 of
]\Iarch 29, 1944, pages 124 and 139, found that the United May Day
Conference was "engineered by the Communist Party for its 1937 May
Day demonstrations" and also organized by the party in 1938.
A leaflet entitled "Invitation to Second United May Day Con-
ference, April 20, 1940," which was held at Webster Hall, 119 East
Eleventh Street, New York City, lists James Lustig as a member of
the United May Day Committee. The United May Day Committee
was cited by Attorney General Clark in lists prepared by him for use of
the Loyalty Review Board as subversive and among affiliates and com-
mittees of the Communist Party, United States of America (press re-
lease of the U. S. Civil Service Commission, dated December 4, 1947) .
James Lustig was one of the endorsers of the Memorial Day Youth
Peace Parade Committee, according to the Daily Worker of May 16,
1938, page 2. The Memorial Day Youth Peace Parade (1938) was
cited as a Commiuiist front by the Special Committee on Un-American
Activities in the report of March 29, 1944, page 83 :
Reference to reports made by James Lustig, district organizer for
New York and northern New Jersey, at the annual convention of the
United Electrical, Radio, and Macliine Workers in Cleveland is noted
in the Daily Worker of September 7, 1940, page 3.
James Lustig was one of the signers of a letter to President Roose-
velt, issued by the Trade Committee to Free Earl Browder, a division
of the Citizens' Committee to Free Earl Browder, according to the
Daily Worker of February 5, 1942, pages 1 and 4 :
When Earl Brovpder (then general spcretary, Comnmnist Party) was in Atlanta
Penitentiary serving a sentence involving his fraudulent passports, the Communist
Party's front which agitated for his release was known as the Citizens' Com-
mittee to Free Earl Browder * * * (Report 1311, March 29, 1944, Special
Committee on Un-American Activities.)
The Citizens' Committee to Free Earl Browder was cited as a Com-
munist organization by Attorney General Francis Biddle (Congres-
sional Record, September 24, 1942, p. 7687).
A list which was submitted by Helen Bryan, executive secretary of
the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee, on February 26, 1946,
lists James Lustig as a member of the executive board of the organiza-
tion. He was a speaker at a meeting of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee
Committee held in Los Angeles, as shown in the Daily People's World
of August 22, 1947, page 2. Reference to his affiliation with this organ-
ization is noted in a biographical sketch vhich appeared in the Daily
Worker of June 16, 1948, page 11, which was accompanied by his
photograph.
The Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee was cited as a Com-
munist front organization by the Special Committee on Un-American
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 647
Activities in Report 1311 of March 29, 1944, page 174 ; the organization
has been cited by Attorney General CLark as subversive and Communist
(press releases of the U. S. Civil Service Commission, dated December
4, 1947, and September 21, 1948).
On March 29, 1946, the chairman of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee
Committee, and on April 16, 1946, the executive secretary and members
of the executive board were cited for contempt of Congress by the
House of Representatives for refusal to produce records of the organ-
ization. All were convicted in Federal court on June 27, 1947.
James Lustig was a speaker at the Jefferson School of Social Science,
as shown in the Daily Worker of December 18, 1947, page 4 :
At the beginning of the present year, tiie old Conmuinist Party Workers School
and the School for Democracy were merged into the Jefferson School of Social
Science (Keport 1311 of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities,
March 29, 1944, p. 150).
The Jefferson School of Social Science has been cited as "an adjunct
of the Communist Party" by Attorney General Clark (press release of
the U. S. Civil Service Commission, dated December 4, 1947).
A photostatic copy of a letter dated November 16, 1945, which was
signed by James Lustig, gives endorsement to the application of the
People's Radio Foundation, Inc., for an FM broadcasting license. In
connection with this endorsement, James Lustig signed the letter as
]'>resident of tlie National Council of Hungarian-American Trade
Unionists, affiliated with the Hungarian-American Council for
Democracy.
Both the People's Radio Foundation, Inc., and the Hungarian-
American Council for Democracy have been cited by Attorney General
Clark as subversive and Communist organizations (press releases of
the U. S. Civil Service Commission, dated December 4, 1947, and
September 21, 1948).
James Lustig w\as the winner of a contest for selling subscriptions to
the Daily Worker as shown in the August 27, 1926, issue of this publi-
cation, page 4. His address was given as New York City. He sent
greetings to this publication on its eighth anniversary, according to
the January 2, 1932, issue, page 5. The January 16, 1 939, issue of the
Daily Worker, page 3, carried his greetings to the Sunday Worker
(Sunday edition of the Daily Worker) . He was identified in this con-
nection as business representative, United Electrical, Radio, and Ma-
chine Workers. Photographs of James Lustig appeared in the Daily
Worker issues of April 12, 1938, page 3, and September 18, 1941, page 5.
The Daily Worker has been cited as the chief journalistic mouth-
piece of the Communist Party in reports of the Special Committee on
Un-American Activities.
An official program of the American People's Meeting lists James
Lustig as one of the sponsors. The American People's Aleeting was
cited by the Special Committee on Un-American Activities as a Com-
munist front in report 1311, page 106.
References to James Lustig appear in the testimony of John P.
Frey, president of the metal trades department of the American Fed-
eration of Labor, befoi'e the Special Committee on Un-American Ac-
tivities on August 13, 1938. These references follow :
Mr. Frey. With regard to the United Radio, Electrical, and Machine Workers
Union, CIO affiliate, this organization has on its pay roll a number of Communist
leaders.
648 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
A preliminary check-up of this union lists some of the Communists who are
officially connected with this organization * * * James Lustig, Brooklyn, N-
Y., organizer * * *_
I have here a copy of a circular issued by the Communist Party in San Fran-
cisco in connection with the general strike in that city.
The provisional committee for support of the San Francisco general strike was
largely made up of Counnunists * * *. The members of the Communist
Party who issued this circular in connection with the support of the general strike
are : * * * J. Lustig — this is the Lustig who has replaced Sentner in Newton,
Iowa * * * (public hearings, vol. 1, pp. lOG and 271).
In connection with his testimony, Mr. Frey submitted certain rec-
ords, in which the following reference to James Lustig appears :
James Lustig, Brooklyn, N. Y. : Organizer for district No. 4, United Electrical,
Radio, and Machine Workers Union, which is the CIO outfit.
Lustig was a former national officer of the Steel and Metal Workers Independ-
ent Union, an affiliate of the Trade Union Unity League, which was organized
and controlled l)y the Communist Party under William Z. Foster. Left New York
August 6 to take charge of Maytag strike (public hearings, vol. 1, p. 127).
In testimony before the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties on April 23, 1940, concerning various unions, Thomas Humphrey
0"Shea made the following reference to James Lustig :
Mr. O'Shea. * * * As a matter of fact the principal officer of his group
* * * in New York City * * * is a man by the name of Lustig. Now,
Lustig was at one time organizer in the Bronx, one of the biggest sections, 1,.^00
Communists, prior to going in and becoming a functionary in the trade-union field.
Mr. Matthews. You mean section organizer for the Communist Party?
Mr. O'Shea. Section organizer for the Communist Party. And he had the
official position — I think you will find that in the public records — and he is now
regional director of New York * * * (public hearings, vol. XIII, p. 7945).
On July 25, 1947, James Joseph Conroy, business agent of local 1237
of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers, testified before
the Committee on Un-American Activities concerning communism in
labor unions in the United States. In the course of his testimony, he
referred to James Lustig, as follows :
sir. Stripling. Mr. Conroy, do you know James Lustig, who is an international
officer of UEV
Mr. Conroy. I know James Lustig. He is not an international representative
of the union. He is a district representative. * * * jje is a district
representative of district 4.
* ******
Mr. Striplijmg. Is James Lustig a member of the Communist Party?
Mr. Conroy. Yes, sir ; he is.
Mr. Stripling. How do you know that?
Mr. Conroy. I attended party meetings with him (hearings before the Com-
mittee on Un-American Activities, July 25, 1947, pp. 195-196).
On July 21, 1947, Walter S. Steele, chairman of the national security
committee of the American Coalition of Patriotic, Civic, and Fraternal
Societies, and managing editor of the National Republic magazine,
testified before the Committee on Un-American Activities concerning
activity in the United States of the Communist Party. In his
testimony, Mr. Steele referred to James Lustig, as follows :
Mr. Steele. Joint Conference Against Intervention in Greece was formed in
answer to the call of the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship at a
meeting held in the Capitol Hotel in New York City on March 18, 1947. * * *
The continuation committee is composed of * * * James Lustig (CIO United
Electrical Workers) (hearings before the Committee on Un-American Activities,
July 21, 1947, p. 131 ) .
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 649
The National Council of American-Soviet Friendship was cited by
the Special Committee on Un-American Activities as ''the Connnunist
Party's principal front for all things Eussian" in report 1311, dated
;Marcli 2[), 1944, page 150. The organization has been cited by the
Attorney General as subversive and Conmumist — press releases of the
United States Civil Service Commission, December 4, 1947, and Sep-
tember 21, 1948.
Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Russell, I vrould like to get yon to offer in
evidence the testimony of J. B. Alatthews before the House Education
and Labor Subcommittee on September 29, 1948, relating to Matles and
others, which I w ill not ask you to read, but simplj- tile, and mark it
'Tiussell exhibit 6."
Mr. Wood. It will be received."
Mr. Tavenner. That is all.
Mr. Wood. The committee will stand adjourned.
(Whereupon, at 12: 15 p. m., the committee adjourned.)
^ See appendix, p. 651, Russell exhibit 6.
95013-49 -pt. 1 8
APPENDIX
Exhibits received during testimony of August 9, 10, and 11, and retained In
the files of the committee.
Russell :
Exhibit No. 1.
Exhibit No. 2.
Exhibit No. 3.
Kornfeder :
Exhibit No. 1.
Exhibit No. 2.
Exhibit No. 3.
Exhibit No. 4.
Exhibit No. 5.
Exhibit No. 6.
Exhibit No. 7.
Exhibit No. 8.
Exhibit No. 9.
Exhibit No. 10.
Exhibit No. 11.
Exhibit No. 12.
Whisner :
Exhibit No. 1
Letter dated November 1, 1948, from United States Atomic
Energy Commission to Charles E. Wilson, president, Gen-
eral Electric Co.
New Times, January 1, 1949, article The American Electri-
cal Workers' Union and Its Enemies, page 30.
Copy of Informal Memorandum of F. Dickinson Letts, judge,
dated ADril 25, 1949.
Article entitled "International Committee in Action," by
Earl R. Browder, The Worker, April 7, 1923, page 4.
Article entitled "The New Open Shop Drive," by Joseph
Zack, The Daily Worker, May 14, 1927, pages 3 and 7.
Article entitled "The New Open Shop Drive," by Joseph
Zack, The Daily Worker, May 28, 1927, page 3.
Sketches showing Workers Party Convention delegates. The
Daily Worker, September 6, 1927, page 5.
Statement of Otto Kuusinen, secretary of the Communist
International, May 12, 1929, Hearings, Committee on Un-
American Activities, volume II, page 7127.
Article entitled "Against the Labor Party," by Joseph Zack,
The Communist, January 1930, pages 67-80.
Article entitled "The Era of Partners," by Joseph Zack, The
Communist, March 1930, pages 257-267.
Article entitled "Place the Party on a War Footing," by
Earl Browder, The Communist, July 1932, pages 590-605.
Article entitled "The Trade-Unions in New York and the Un-
employed," by J. Zack, The Daily Worker, March 1, 1933,
page 4.
Leaflet, Trade-Union Conference for United Action, August
26-27, 1933.
The Communist, February 19.34, pages 207 to 217, article
entitled "How to Apply the Open Letter," by Joseph Zack.
The Communist, April 1934, pages 356 to 362, article entitled
"The Line Is Correct — To Realize It Organizationally Is
the Central Problem," by Joseph Zack.
Photostat of passport application of Robert C. Whisner,
executed April 4, 1934.
Exhibit No. 2 : Leaflet advertising meeting at Irving Plaza Hall, under
auspices New York District, Friends of the Soviet Union,
listing Robert Whisner as a speaker. (Reproduced in
text.)
Leaflet advertising meeting at Irving Plaza Hall, under
auspices New York District, Friends of the Soviet Union,
listing R. Weisner as one who would report on what he
saw as a delegate in the Soviet Union. (Reproduced in
text.)
Article, U. S. S. R. Points Way for American Workers,
by Robert Whisner. Soviet Russia Today, January 1935,
page 19.
Article, The FSU in Action, by Bella Phillips. Soviet Rus-
sia Today, December 1934, page 21.
Exhibit No. 3;
Exhibit No. 4:
Exhibit No. 5:
650
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 651
Russell :
Exhibit No. 4 : Affidavit of Clarence D. Copeland.
Exhibit No. 5 : Affidavit of Richard W. McClellan.
Exhibit No. 6: Testimony of J. B. Matthews before House Education and
Labor Subcommittee, September 29, 1948. (Printed in
full following list of exhibits.)
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Wokkeus of America
The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, having be-
tween six and seven hundred thousand members, is the largest Communist-
dominated organization in the American labor movement.
This vast segment of American labor, together with their dependents, make
up a group of some 2,000,000 persons. They have economic interests which ai-e
vitally affected by the fact that this union is under Communist control.
Incredible as it may seem, they are to a great extent at the mercy of a
Hungarian-born, alien Communist.
This man is .James Matles. His title is UE Director of Organization.
Assisting Matles in this Communist control are roughly 4r)0 Communist Party
members or ardent fellow travelers.
These men, whom I shall presently name, follow both the Communist Party
"line" and the orders of James Matles with complete fidelity. I shall submit
their records to the committee.
How an organization representing the interests of so many loyal citizens can
be dominated by a numerically insignificant group of Communists will be a
profound mystery to all but those who have been initiated into the techniques
of Communist control.
A group of Communists anywhere, outside Soviet Russia and its captive states,
is synonymous with a fifth column. The Communist leadership of the UERMWA
is a fifth column which reaches into some of the most important sections of the
American industrial establishment.
The UERMWA has Nation-wide bargaining relations with such giants as
Westinghouse Electric Corp., General Motors Corp., General Electric Co., Radio
Corporation of America, and Sylvania Electrical Products.
The fraud by which the Communists took over control of the union in the
General p]lectric plant at Schenectady, N. Y., is illustrative of some of their
unscrupulous tactics.
In i\Iay 193.5, Israel Amter, then New York State chairman of the Communist
Party, went to Schenectady where he gathered a small group of GE employees
and local Communists together, to confer on strategy.
At this meeting Amter appointed Sadie Doran. local Commiuust Party organ-
izer, to direct the strategy of taking over the union in the GE plant. She was
in Schenectady imtil late in 1936 when the party sent Dorothy Loeb and Joseph
Klein to replace her. In recent years, Dorothy Loeb has written the lai)or news
column of the Daily Worker.
Later on, it has been learned from competent witnesses, the Schenectady
Communists were told that they would receive their instructions on union mat-
ters from James Matles. In 1936, the Communist Party strength in Schenectady
was a half dozen active members, and the union had enrolled between 2.")0 and
300 members. A half dozen obscure employees set about to pit their strength
against a lullion-dollar corporation.
After learning that npi)roximately 3,500 dues-paying union members would be
recpiired before the NLRB in Washington would authorize a collective bargain-
ing election, the half dozen Communist zealots sat down night after night to
make out tlmt mnny fraudulent union cards and dues receipts. They simply
<-opied nnmes and addresses from the telephone directories of the vicinit.v.
The NTiRB then sent a representative to Schenectady from Washington. This
representative took a casual glance at the fraudulent cards and ordered an elec-
tion. The Communists won the election, and from that time to the present day
they have doniinate<l the union local at the GE plant — local 301 which at times
has reached a membership as high as 27,000.
There is evidence that the same kind of fraud was practised elsewhere in the
country by the Communists.
UE Lo^al 301 at S'lincclady is looked upon as something of the "mother local"
throughout the UERMWA. Reliable witnesses report that the Communist Party
has pinsued a coui'se of relentless determination to retain control of the local
regardless of cost, having .sent in scores of organizers and spent thousands of
652 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
dollars whenever its grip seemed threatened. Probably no other industrial
plant in the United States is more important to the national defense than the
GE plant at Schenectady.
Like all Commuuist-controled unions, the UERMWA toes the Kremlin line on
all questions. It has never been guilty of a deviation, however slight.
In the early days of the union, the Communist Party's American League Against
War and Fascism represented the foreign policy of Moscow's Politburo. The
UERMWA gave its whole-hearted support to the league, urging its locals to par-
ticipate actively in its agitation and propaganda. Tlie first point in the pro-
gram of the American League Against War and Fascism read as follows :
"To work toward the stopping of the manufacture and transport of inunitioiis
and all other materials essential to the conduct of war, through mass demon-
strations, picketing, and strikes."
The significance for national defense of the UERMWA's commitment to that
kind of treason is at once apparent.
Late in 1937, the Communist Party "line" shifted to what it called "collective
security of the democracies against fascism." At that time, the American League
Against War and Fascism became the American league for Peace and Democracy,
and all talk of stopping manufacture by political strikes was dropped. The
UERMWA, with complete servility, shifted its position to conform with the new
Communist Party "line." The UE News, whose editor is Julius Emspak, lias al-
ways been a mere echo of the Daily Worker.
The American Communists were quite imprepared by Moscow for the signing
of the Stalin-Hitler pact by the beaming Molotov and Ribbentrop in August 1939.
Nevertheless, they proceeded to bury the American League for Peace and De-
mocracy without the usual respect which is accorded the dead. They went over
to the new foreign policy of Ribbentrop. The UE News and Emspak, Matles and
company went along obediently with Molotov and Ribbentrop. The new UERMWA
and Commimist Party slogans were "The Yanks Are Not Coming," and "No Con-
voys, No AEF." UE locals across the country adopted these slogans and j^assel
resolutions in conformity with them. The new foi-eign pnlicy culminated iT>
September 1940, in the formation of the American Peace Mobilization. Tlie
White House was picketed and Wall Street was cursed with the old fervor. The
UE leadership gave overwhelming evidence of its fifth column character.
On June 22, 1941, everything changed once more. The UE News shrieked a
war-mongering patriotism. So did the Daily Worker. The UERMWA formally
pledged a "No strike" policy and held labor-management conferences on all-out
production.
In the middle of 1942, the Communist Party received instructions from the
Kremlin to begin N'ati<m-wide agitation for a "second front." UE leaders and
many locals began to flood the White House with demands for a second front,
without the slightest regard for our military readiness. The sole consideration
was the new set of instructions dictated by Moscow.
The conclusion of tlie war brought a new agitation calculated to serve the
interests of the Soviet Foreign OiRce. This time the slogan was "Bring the boys
home." Once more the UE leadership was weighed in the BoJshevik balance and
found not wanting.
Today the UE leadership has pitched its tents in the Wallace-Communist camp.
UE genei'al president. Albert J. Fitzgerald, presided at the Philadelphia conven-
tion of the Progressive Party. UE leaders in many parts of the country are
running for office this year on the Progressive Party ticket. The UE News is
currently devoting many pages to news and pictures of the fifth-columnist party.
It will come as a surprise to some to learn that the UE News, otficial organ of
the UERMWA, is not published by the union but by the Trade Union Service,
Inc., an entirely independent concern ; not a single owner of the Trade Union
Service, Inc., is a member of the UERMWA. Among the owners are Corliss
Lamont, Frederick Vanderbilt Field, and James Waterman Wise — all of whom
have extremely long records of affiliation with Communist-front organizations.
Last Saturday, Attorney General Clark caused to be published a revised list
of subversive organizations. This newest list included the People's Radio Foun-
dation. AVlien the People's Radio Foundation applied to the Federal Commu-
nications Commission 2 years ago for an FM broadcasting license, it listed its
stockholders. It was then revealed that district 4 of the UERMWA is the
largest single stockholder in this subversive Communist enterprise. Next in order
of their stockholdings in the People's Radio Foundation are the Communist Party
auxiliary, the International Workers Order ; the Russky Golos Publishing Corp
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 653
which publishes a Communist Party newspaper in the Russian lanf;uage; and
the Communist-controlled International Fur and Leather Workers Union.
Although it is a Communist-controlled union, the TTERMWA does not adhere
to class-struggle practices in all of its conti'actual relaticms with business con-
cerns. One exception is the Electronics Manufacturers Association.
The secretary-treasurer of the Electronics Manufacturers Association is none
other than Samuel J. Noviok, its founder and most influential member. Novick
heads a concern known as the Electronic Corp. of America.
The UE News of July 31, 194S, has a picture of a smiling group of men signing
a contract between UE Local 430 and the Electronics iNIanufacturers Association,
There are no expressions of class struggle on their faces.
The Communist Party's Sunday newspaper, the Worker, devoted more than
two pages of its issue of December 10, 1944, to a highly eulogistic article on
Samuel J. Novick and his Electronic Corp. of America. The article says: "The
("lO-UE considers ECA's labor-management committee as a model." This is
characteristic of the praise which both the UERMWA and the Daily Worker have
meted out to Samuel J. Novick.
The Communist Party newspaper then makes the astonishing statement about
the ECA (Electronic Corp. of America) : "ECA is making money producing radios
and scieutitic electronic gadgets, most of them of secret nature, for the United
States armed forces." When it is remembered tliat this was written during the
war, the question naturally arises : How did the Communist Party know about
Novick's secret scientific gadgets in wartime and why? The Committee on Un-
American Activities has just reported as follows : "During the war, Electronic
Corp. of America performed secret Government contracts in the amount of some
.*'''6.000,C0O. l''nr a time it was the only (•f)ntractor engaged in producing certain
highly secret items for use in radar installations."
It is not hard to guess how the Communist Party knew about Novick's secret
items for use in radar installations while the war was still on. Novick's public
relations director was Carl A. Bristel, who was business manager of the Com-
munist Party's New Masses under the name of Sol P.ecker, in 1942. Further-
more, the UE leaders who negotiated labor contracts with Novick and praise him
so highly are Anthony Salese, president of UE Local 430; and A] Stearn, business
manager of the same local. Both Salese and Stearn have been positively iden-
tified as members of the Communist Party. In other words, all of Novick's
employees are under the control, in their union activities, of two members of
the Communist Party.
Since Novick liimself is something of a veteran Communist fellow traveler,
it would appear that UB Local 430 is a "company union" so far as its relations
with Novick are concerned. Novick was one of tlie original sponsors of the
People's Radio Foundation which Attorney General Clark says is subversive
and in which UERMWA District 4 is the largest stockholder. Novick was also
a sponsor of the National Negro Congress and of an auxiliary of the Interna-
tional Labor Defense, both of which the Attorney General listed as subversive
last Saturday. Furthermore, Novick lias been a member of the board of directors
of the Coramnnist-controlled American-Russian Institute whose executive director
is Henry Collins. Jr., who was named j'ecently as a member of the Communist
underground cell in Washington, D. C. Novick has also been aiffiliated with
the Ambijan Committee for Emergency Aid to the Soviet Union. In view of
all the facts, including his false statement which facilitated the entrance of a
Soviet spy, Arthur Adams, into the United States, it is pertinent to ask if Novick
drew any line anywhere on the type of "emergency aid" which he was prepared
to render to the Soviet Union. Noviclc was treasurer of the Communist-controlled
American Committee for Spanish Freedom.
Novick's relations with the Communist leaders of the tTERMWA raises the
question of the possibilities of easy espionage in such a situation.
When we come to the matter of individual UB leaders, we find that the
records show that several hundreds of these leaders are members of the Com-
munist Party or have had significant affiliations with subversive Communist-
front organizations. I shall take up 100 cases of individual leaders.
Pat Amato, president, UE Local 1150, Chicago, delegate to 19.'i7 and lO'/S
UE conventions
Pat Amato sent May Day greetings to the Chicago Star, weeldy Communist
Party newspaper published in Chicago whose name was changed to the Illi-
nois Standard in September 1948. (See Chicago Star, April 26, 1947.)
654 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Amato was a member of the Chicago Star subscription of Local 1150, thus
indicating his more than casual interest in the circulation of this Communist
Party newspaper. (See Chicago Star, March 20, 1948.)
Amato signed the manifesto defending the Communist Party which was pub-
lished under the auspices of the Civil Rights Congress in May 1947. (See The
Worker, May 25, 1947. ) The Civil Rights Congress is on 'Attorney General
Clark's list of subversive organizations. It was formed in 1946 by a merger
of the International Labor Defense and the National Federation for Constitu-
tional Liberties, both of which have been officially cited as subversive by many
Government agencies.
R. W. Bergstrom, business agent, JJE Local 1139, Minneapolis, delegate to 1948
VE convention
R. W. Bergstrom was one of the numerous CIO leaders who were affiliated
with the Citizens Committee To Free Earl Browder. (See Daily Worker, Jan-
uary 25, 1942.)
The Citizens Committee To Free Earl Browder was a strictly Communist
Party affair. Its executive secretary was the well-known Communist Elizabeth
Gurley Flynn. Miss Flynn is not only a member of the national committee of
the Communist Party but also a columnist for the Daily Worker. Louis Wein-
stock, administrative secretary of the Citizens Committee To Free Earl Browder,
is now a member of the national committee of the Communist Party.
Bergstrom was also a meml)er of the Minnesota State Committee To Free
Earl Browder. (See Daily Worker, November 8, 1941.)
Bergstrom was also affiliated with the National Federation for Constitutional
Liberties.
Under the auspices of the Civil Rights Congress, Bergstrom signed a state-
ment denouncing the recent indictment of 12 national leaders of the Communist
Party. (See Daily Worker, September 23, 1948.)
JoJm. T. Bernard, TIE political action director, district 11, Chicago, UE field
organizer
John T. Bernard, former Member of the House of Representatives, long ago
acquired a reputation as a Communist. A mere listing of his affiliations is suf-
ficient to confirm the accuracy of the charge that he has been an effective agent
of the Commu-iist Party.
He has been an instructor in the Abraham Lincoln School, the Communist
Party's training school in Chicago which Attorney General Clark has listed as
subversive.
He has been affiliated with the following Communist front organizations and
enterprises :
American Committee for Defense of Puerto Rican Political Prisoners.
American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born.
American League for Peace and Democracy.
American League Against War and Fascism.
American Peace Mobilization.
American Rieief Ship for Spain.
American Writers Congress.
Ben Leider Memorial Fund.
Citizens Committee for Harry Bridges.
Committee for a Democratic Far Eastern Policy.
Conference on Constitutional Liberties in America.
Council of U. S. Veterans.
Daily Worker.
Friends of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
Howard University Student Strike.
Illinois People's Conference for Legislative Action,
International Labor Defense.
International Workers Order.
Mother Bloor Celebration Committee.
Motion Picture Artists Committee.
National Federation for Constitutional Liberties.
New Masses.
Open Letter Protesting the Ban on Communists in the American Civil
Liberties Union.
United American-Spanish Aid Committee.
Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
Washington Friends of Spanish Democracy.
Workers Alliance.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 655
Neil Brant, TIE international representative
The New York Times of December S, 1945, reported that Neil Brant was the
spolvesman for 30,000 employees of the General IMotors Corp. in rejecting an offer
by GM of 331'2-cent-an-hour increase in wages for these employees in its plants
in four cities. It is apparent that Brant's position in the United Electrical,
liartio, and INIachine Workers of America is a key one.
On February 14, 1941, Neil Brant was arrested and charged with "defiling
the United States flag" in the State of New Jersej\ His police description
attached to the record of his arrest reads as follows :
"AVhite, male, 37, 5 feet 6 inches, 145 pounds, gray eyes, dark brown gray
hair, slim build, sallow complexion, small mustache; occupation, labor organizer;
birthphice, Russia."
It will be noted, of course, that Brant's arrest for defiling the United States
flag occurred during the period of the Stalin-Hitler pact when the American
Peace Mobilization was engaged in its Nation-wide seditious activities and when
the Communist Party of the United States was lending every possible aid to
Hitler by obstructng the Nation's military preparedness program. Brant's atti-
tude toward the United States flag during that period accurately reflected the
Communist Party's views as they have been expressed throughout most of the
party's 25-year history in this country. For example, when William Z. Foster,
national chairman of the Communist Party, was a witness before a committee
of Congress, he was asked the following question :
"Do you owe allegiance to the American flag; does the Communist Party owe
allegiance to the American flag?"
After some sparring, Foster replied :
"And all capitalist flags are flags of the capitalist class, and we owe no alle-
giance to them."
In the Daily Worker of July 14, 1936, there appears the following question :
"Should Communists salute the American flag?" And the Daily Worker answered :
"Our flag is the red flag of the international working class." Also, when one
of the leading members of the Communist Party returned from the Soviet Union,
he engaged in a demonstration, during which he clashed with the local police,
and the Communist's own account of his words was published in the Daily
Worker, as follows :
"I told the police to hell with the U. S. A. flag. I said that the flag I claimed
was the one with the hammer and sickle, the red flag, which we will have some
day."
On December 15, 1940, the New Jersey State Industrial Council had before it
a resolution which read as follows :
"The council condemns the dictatorships and totalitarianism of nazism, com-
munism, and fascism as inimical to the welfare of labor and destructive of our
form of government."
Brant led the fight to delete "communism" from the resolution.
Neil Brant was a member of the executive board of the National Federation for
Constitutional Liberties, one of the most influential of the Communist Party's
fronts of recent .vears, and also an organization which Attorney General Clark
named as subversive.
In 1937 the International Labor Defense set up a trade-union advisory com-
mittee, of which Neil Brant was a member (Labor Defender, October 1937,
p. 18). The International Labor Defense, as almost evex-yone knows, was the
legal arm of the Communist Party.
Neil Brant was an instructor in the Communist Party's Workers' School.
(See school catalog, 1037.) It may be assumed that such an instructorship could
be held only by a card-holding member of the Communist Party. In 1941 the
Workers' School became the School for Democracy, and Neil Brant was a lecturer
in that institution.
Brant was a participant in the April 6 peace rally, a Communist Party demon-
stration held at Madison Square Garden which was part of a Nation-wide move-
ment leading up to the formation of the American Peace Mobilization. (See
Daily Worker. Apr. 4, 1!I40.)
Brant was a speaker for the American Student Union, another Communist-front
organization. (See Daily Worker, Dec. 26, 1941.)
Alhert Casale, business agent, TJE local 1225, Neio York
When Israel Amter, veteran leader of the Communist Party, ran for the
governorship of New York on the Communist Party ticket, his fellow Commu-
nists organized the Labor Committee for Amter as a part of their campaign
for votes.
656 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Albert Casale was a member of tbe Labor Committee for Amter.
Since Amter has always been openly a member of tbe Communist Party and
since his candidacy for the governorship of New York was openly a candidacy of
the Communist Party, it must be assumed that the members of his campaign
committee had fully apprised themselves of these facts, and were knowingly
giving their support to the cause of communism in this instance.
Albert Casale is one of the many strategically placed officials of the UERMWA
•who have given their support to communism.
Casale was also affiliated with the Citizens Committee to Free Earl Browder.
(See the Worker, January 25, 1942.)
Tony Cattonar, Msiness agent, UE local 475, Brooklyn, delegate to 1947 and
1948 UE conventions
Tony Cattonar is a member of the Communist Party. He is also an alien,
having been born in Italy.
Formerly, he went luider the name of Carlo Andrea, and later Carlo di Andrea.
For a brief period, Cattonar was business manager of L'Unita del Popolo, the
Communist Party newspaper which is published in the Italian language in this
country.
Cattonar is the son-in-law of the veteran Communist Party leader, Israel
Amter. It may be noted, parenthetically, that Amter and his wife, Sadie Van
Veen, were prominent in the early organization days of the UERMWA, par-
ticularly in Schenectady.
David Davis, husltiess agent, local 155, Philadelphia, delegate to 1947 and 1948
UE conventions
David Davis is one of the UE leaders who openly acknowledges his member-
ship in the Communist Party. He is a member of its national committee, the
highest governing body of the Communist Party in the United States. (See Daily
Worker, July 30, 1945.)
Davis was also a member of the national committee of the now defunct Com-
munist Political Association, and a member of the constitution committee at its
founding convention in May 1944. (See Proceedings of Communist Political
Association.)
Davis has also been affiliated with numerous Communist Party projects and
front organizations.
He was a sponsor of the United May Day Conference in Philadelphia, a Comv
munist-controlled affair in 1946. (See Daily Worker, April 4, 194f5. )
In 1944, he shared the platform with William Z. Foster, head of the Com-
munist Party, at a Philadelphia celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the
Communist Party's Daily Worker. (See the Worker, January 9, 1944.) He
sent a personal message to this Communist Party paper, in which he said : "Today
we observe with justifiable pride the twentieth anniversary of the Daily Worker."
Under the auspices of the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties,
he signed an appeal to Governor Olson on behalf of the California Communist
leader, Sam Darcy. (See Daily Worker, December 19, 1940.) Attorney General
Tom Clark has listed the NFCL as a subversive organization. Also under the
auspices of the NFCL, Davis signed a message to the House of Representatives,
calling for the end of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities.
He was the signer of a letter to President Roosevelt under the auspices of
the Citizens Committee to Free Earl Browder, a Communist front whose ob-
jective was the release of Earl Browder from the Atlanta Federal prison where
he was serving a 4-year term in connection with his conviction for passport
fraud. (See Daily Worker, March 19, 1942.)
According to Soviet Russia Today, he sent greetings to the Soviet Union. ( See
November 1935 issue of magazine.)
Under the auspices of the Civil Rights Congress, he signed a manifesto in de-
fense of the Communist Party. (See the Worker, May 25, 1947.) The Civil
Rights Congress is also on Attorney General Clark's list of subversive organi-
zations.
Anthony DeMaio, UE representative, district 11, Minneapolis, delegate to 1947
UE convention
The UE News, official organ of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine
Workers of America, proudly announced tliat Anthony DeMaio was back from
the war, and is now on the pay roll of the international office of the UERMWA,
assigned to Minneapolis. He is a brother of Ernest DeMaio, president of UE
district 11.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 657
Anthony DeMaio of UERMWA was in another war several years ago. He was
one of the big shots in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain. Witnesses who
had been in Spain with Anthony DeMaio testified under oath to acts of extreme
sadism committetl by DeMaio against men who were trying to get out of Spain,
At tlie same hearing, on April 12, li)4(), there was sworn testimony tliat DeMaio
was a "liiller" ; that lie shot defenseless American boys down in cold blood. The
whole sickening story of Anthony DeMaio may be found in detail in volume 13
of the hearings of the Special Connuittee on Un-American Activities of the
House of Representatives. I, personally, conducted the questioning of DeMaio
when he was on the witness stand before the Special Committee on Un-American
Activities.
As to DeMaio's identity as a member of the Communist Party, the following
questions and answers appear in the printed record of the above date:
"Mr. MATTHEWS. Were you ever a member of the Communist I'arty?
"Mr. DeMaio. I was.
"Mr. Matthews. When did you join the Communist Party?
"Mr. DeMaio. I don't recall the exact date. It was when I returned from
Spain.
"Mr. MATTHEWS. You did travel on a false passport when you went to Spain,
didn't you, Mr. DeMaio?"
"Mr. DeMaio. I still refuse (to answer)."
Tlie UE News further proudly offers the interesting bit of information that
while DeMaio, the alleged brutal killer in Spain, was wearing a uniform in
Europe he was placed in charge of a camp of 700 women in Czechoslovakia by
the United States Army.
In other words, in spite of the oflBcial sworn testimony as to the character of
this man, known to the FBI, and easily accessible to the United States Army,
he was accepted for service, and was placed in a position of trust and re-
sponsibility.
Under the auspices of the Civil Rights Congress, DeMaio signed a statement
denouncing the recent indictment of the 12 national leaders of the Communist
Party. (See Daily Worker, September 23, 1948.)
Ernest DeMaio, UE International vice president, president, UE distHct 11,
delegate to 19Jf7 and 19^8 UE conventions.
Ernest DeMaio's Communist affiliations are such as to leave no doubt that
he is a Communist and not just a casual supporter of one or two Communist
enterpri.ses.
He Is on the board of directors of the Abraham Lincoln School, the Communist
Party's training school in Chicago.
He was a sponsor of the seditious American Peace Momilization.
Together with fellow otlicers of the UERMWA, DeMaio sent formal greetings
to the American Slav Congress.
He was a sponsor of the Friends of the New Masses in Chicago. The New
Masses was the weekly publication of the Communist Party.
DeMaio is a sponsor of the Joint Anti-Fa.scist Refugee Committee, IG of whose
rational officers were convicted of contempt of Congress. He has spoken for
the JAFRC in Chicago. ( See Chicago Star, June 26, 1948.)
He was one of 144 Comunist CIO leaders who publicly liailed the Daily Worker
on the occasion of its twentieth anniversary in January 1944.
In the Daily Worker of May 19, 1947, Ernest DeMaio anepared as one of the
signers of a manifesto issued under the auspices of the Civil Rights Congress.
He sponsored the 1947 conference of the American Committee for Protection
of Foreign Born.
DelMaio is a member of the National Wallace for President Committee, and
is president of the Illinois labor division of Wallace's Progressive Party. (See
Chicago Star, May 8, 1948.)
Six of the organizations with which DelMaio has been affiliated are on
Attorney General Clark's list of subversive Communist fronts.
Joseph Dermody, UE international representotive, district h
At the request of Edgar L. Warren, head of the Conciliation Service of the
United States Department of Labor, five leaders of the UERMWA went to
Washington, D. C, on December 26. 1945, to confer with tlie Government rep-
resentative on the UER^IWA's negotiations with General P^lectric, Westingliouse,
and General Motors. These five leaders were James Matles. Joseph Dermody,
Edward Matthews, Neil Brant, and Nathan Spero. It is very significant that
658 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
four of these five leaders of the UERMWA (all hut Spero) have snhstantial
Communist records, a fact which amply attests the Communist leadersliip of this
CIO union.
Joseph Dermondy was a memher of the Communist committee which was known
as the Joint Connnittee for Trade Union Rights, a group whose avowed objec-
tive was to defend the Communist leaders in the fur industry. (See Daily
"Worker, November 11, 1940.)
Dermody was also a member of the Progressive Committee to Rebuild the
American Labor Party, a strictly Communist group which was set up for
the purpose of capturing the ALP, an objective wliich was eventually achieved.
Dermody endorsed the American Youth Congress and urged all locals in
UE district 4 to send delegates to it. (UE News, June 17, 1939.) Attorney
•General Clark lias listed the AYC as subversive.
In his position as secretary of UE district 4, Dermody was a member of the
New York Peace Committee for April 6. (See letter dated ISIarch 25, 1940.)
This committee was a predecessor of the American Peace IVtobilization.
Dermody protested to Gov. Herbert H. Lehman that there was a wide-
spread movement to "intimidate" the Communist Party. ( See Daily Worker,
October 28, 1940.)
Thomas F. Dwyer, business agent, UE local ^75, New York
Thomas F. Dwyer has made no secret of his membership in the Communist
Party. In 1937, he was a candidate for the New York Assembly on the Com-
munist Party ticket. In 1940 he ran for Congress on the Connnunist Party
ticket. In 1941 he was the Communist candidate for sheriff of Kings County,
N. Y.
Dwyer has spoken frequently at Communist Party meetings.
In the elections of 1945, Dwyer was a member of the Citizens Committee to
Re-Elect Councilman Peter V. Cacchione. Cacchione, was, of course, a well-
known leader of the Communist Party.
William B. Elconin, UE international representative, Los Angeles, delegate to
1947 and 194S UE conventions
William B. Elconin is the top leader of the UERjNIWA on west coast.
Elconin is one of the numerous CIO leaders who were affiliated with the
Citizens Committee to Free Earl Browder.
Elconin was a speaker for the seditious American Peace Mobilization in Los
Angeles.
According to the reports of the Tenney Committee, Elconin has publicly de-
fended the west-coast Communist Party newspaper. People's Daily World.
He has also iniblicly defended Communist Party deportees.
At the present time Elconin is a trade-union sponsor of the Independent
Progressive Party, the name by which the Wallace party goes in California.
Frank Emspak, for president, UE local 301, Schenectady
Frank Emspak is the brother of Julis Emspak and like him has been identi-
fied as a member of the Communist Party. He was recruited for the party in
1936 by Salvatore M. Vottis.
Julius Emspak, UE general secretary-treasurer, delegate to 191/7 amd 19Jf8 UE
conventions
Julius Emspak has been identified as "Comrade Juniper," top-labor union com-
missar of the Communist Party in the United States.
Emspak's only rival for complete power in the UERMWA is James Matles.
By any reasonable definition, Emspak is clearly a Communist. As editor
of UE News, he has plugged the Communist Party "line"' in all o fits twists and
turns.
Emspak lias been aftlliated with the following Communist-front organizations :
American Peace Mobilization, member. National Council, folder.
American Relief Ship for Spain, sponsor, letterhead, September 3, 1938.
American Slav Congress, sent greetings, program, Augvist 6, 1944.
Committee to Defend America by Keeping Out of War, sponsor, letter-
head, August 10, 1940.
Consumers Union of United States, Inc., member, Labor Advisory Com-
mittee, letterhead, September 28, 1939.
Emergency Peace Mobilization, sponsor, official program and call, August
31-'September 2, 1940.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 659
Joint Committee for Trade Union Rights, signer of telegram to President
Roosevelt, Daily Worker, November 11, 1940, page 1.
National Committee to Abollsli the Poll Tax, sponsor, PM, May 12, 1944,
.{,;>•• pages. • .
Science and Society, contributor, Science and Society, winter, 1943, page 88.
Charles Ftjy, president, TJE Local 475, vice president, VE district 4, delegate to
lO.'il and 19.'iS UE conventions
Charles Fay was a delegate to the meeting of the American Peace Mobilization
which convened in New York City on April 0, 1941, and which was featui'ed
in the Daily Worker of May 2, 1941. It will be recalled that the APM was the
notorious Connuunist-front organization which propagandized for the Commu-
nist Party "line" during the period of the Stalin-Hitler pact. It is hardly
possible that any of those who participated in the activities and meetings of
the APJM were unaware of its completely Communist complexion.
Charles Fay signed a petition of the Citizens Committee to Free Earl Browder
while he was in attendance, as a delegate, at the meeting of the American Peace
Mobilization.
Under the auspices of the Civil Rights Congress, Fay signed a manifesto in
defense of the Communist Party. (See the Worker, May 25, 1947.)
Henry Fiering, TJE international representative, delegate to 19^8 UE convention
In the Daily Worker of March 8, 1942, Fiering's name appeared, a signer of a
statement released by the National Free Browder Congress.
In 1941, Fiering was a prominent leader of the Vincent Favorito Defense
Committee. Favorito was a Communist Party member in Cleveland, Ohio,
under a Government deportation order for illegal entrance into the United
States.
On June 5, 1946, Ralph E. Moses and Ben H. Cromwell, president and secre-
tary, respectively, of UE Local 801 in Dayton, Ohio, resigned their oflSces and
charged that Henry Fiering was the Dayton leader of the Communist Party
and that, as such, he held complete dictatorial control over local 801. The
international office of the UERMWA named Arthur Garfield to take over the
affairs of local 801. Fiering was shifted to Winston-Salem, N. C.
Fiering was one of 550 signers of a public manifesto issued by the Civil Rights
Congress in defense of the Communist Party, for release on May 25, 1947.
Charles Fisher, negotiator, UE local llJf5
Charles Fisher was a delegate to the meeting of the American Peace Mobiliza-
tion which convened in New York City on April 6. 1941. Tlie APM was the
notorious Communist-front organization which propagandized for the Commu-
nist Party "line" during the period of the Stalin-Hitler i>act.
It is pertinent to note that one filorton Friedman was dismissed from his
position on the War Manpower Commission on the ground that he had been
affiliated with the American Peace Mobilization, and that Friedman's dismissal
was upheld in the courts to which he appealed. In March 1947, the Supreme
Court refused to review the decision of the lower courts in the Friedman case
and thus, in effect, ruled that affiliation with this one Communist-front organiza-
tion (the APM) was sufficient ground for challenging the loyalty of a Govern-
ment employee. The same applies to labor-union leaders.
Charles Fisher signed a petition of the Citizens Committee to Free Earl
Browder while he was in attendance, as a delegate, at tlie meeting of the Ameri-
can Peace Mobilization. (See Daily Worker, May 2, 1941.)
In 1940, Fisher was aflSliated with the Joint Conunittee for Trade-Union Rights,
a Communist-front set-up to defend the Communist leaders in the fur industry.
(See Daily Worker, November 11, 1940.)
He was also a sponsor of the Wisconsin State Conference on Social Legislation
in the year 1940.
Albert J. Fitsgerald, UE general president, delegate to 1941 and 1948 UE con-
ventions
The consensus of opinion on Albert J. Fitzgerald among those who have studied
the Communist Party leadership of the UERMWA is that he is a willing stooge
for the Emspak-Matles Communist machine.
At the present time Fitzgerald is in the forefront of the Wallace third party
movement, a movement which is now engaging the principal energies of the Com-
munist Party.
060 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Fitzgerald has been affiliated with the following Communist-front organiza-
tions :
American Slav Congress, sent greetings, program, August 6. 1944.
Greek American Council, signer of open letter on Greece, the Bulletin,
January 1946, page 1.
National Citizens Political Action Committee, committee member, folder.
National Committee to Abolish the Poll Tax, sponsor, PM, May 12, 1944,
page 3.
National Committee to Combat Anti-Semitism, sponsor, news release.
May 24, 1944.
National Wallace for President Committee, cochairman, news release,
March 23, 1948.
Michael Fitspat rick, former president, JJE district 6, leader, JJE local 601
Michael Fitzpatrick, brother of Thomas J. Fitzpatrick, has been identified as
a member of the Communist Party in sworn testimony before the Committee on
Un-American Activities of the House of Representatives.
While he was president of UE district 6, Michael Fitzpatrick signed a "peace
proclamation" which was an enterprise of the Communist Party in the period of
the Stalin-Hitler Pact and which was part of a Nation-wide Communist agitation
leading up to the formation of the American Peace Mobilization. (See Daily
Worker, January 3, 1940.)
Thomas Fitzpatrick, president, JJE local 601, East PittsMrgh, delegate to 1947
and WlfS UE conventions
Last year at a meeting; of the Pennsylvania Industrial Union Council, CIO,
there was "a bitter floor fight over communism." After this debate, it was voted
to ban Communists, Fascists, Nazis, members of the Ku Klux Klan, and other
hate-disseminating organizations from holding any of the 12 offices of the Penn-
sylvania Industrial Union Council.
Thomas Fitzpatrick led the fight against this ban on the totalitarians and the
hate-mongers. His fight against the move was in the strictest conformity with
the "line" of the Communist Party. (See New York Times, April 26, 1947.)
Fitzpatrick has not been a frequent joiner of Communist-front organizations,
but he signed the Civil Rights Congress manifesto defending the Communist
Party. (See Daily Worker, May 25, 1947.)
There is sworn testimony given before the Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties that Thomas Fitzpatrick is a member of the Communist Party.
Thomas F. Flanagan, business agent, JJE local 611, Sharon, Pa., delegate to 1947
and 19/fS JJE conventions
Thomas Flanagan was a delegate to the 1947 national convention of the Ameri-
can Committee for Protection of Foreign Born, held in Cleveland, October 25-26.
He was a member of the resolutions committee of the convention. (See proceed-
ings of the 1947 convention of the ACPFB.) The ACPFB was cited as subversive
by Attorney General Clark on September 25, 1948.
Thomas Foley, JJE field organizer, Minneapolis
Thomas Foley has been an open member of the Communist Party. In 1932, he
ran for attorney general in Minnesota on the Communist Party ticket.
In 1944, Foley sent greetings to the Daily Worker on the occasion of its twen-
tieth anniversary. He wrote: "Cordial greetings to the Daily Worker, a win-
the-war labor paper and many more successful anniversaries." (See the Worker,
January 9, 1944.)
James Garry, business manager, JJE local 1227, delegate to 19.i7 and 1948 UE
conventions
James Garry has been seen going and coming at the national headquarters of
the Communist Party.
In 1940, Garry presided over the youth session of the May Day Conference,
which was in charge of planning the Communist Party's Mav Dav parade. (See
Daily Worker, April 21, 1940.)
On May 26, 1941, the National Labor Committee Against War, an affiliate of the
seditious American Peace Mobilization, held a confei-ence in New York City.
James Garry was one of the labor union leaders who signed the call to this
conference.
Under the auspices of the Civil Rights Congress, Garry signed a manifesto in
defense of the Communist Party. (See the Worker, May 25, 1947.)
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 661
Garry is a member of a Communist-front organization which is known as the
Citizens Committee to Defend Representative Government, the object of which
is to place Communist Simon W. Gerson on the New York City Council. (See
New York Times, February 19, 1948.)
Leo Gaudreau, recording secretary, UE local 271, Beverly, Mass., delegate to 19^7
UE convention
Leo Gaudreau publicly announced his membership in tlie Communist Party.
The Daily Worker of March 28, 1943, printed a letter from (iaudreau which read
in part as follows: "I am joining the Communist Party because I am convinced
that it is a 100-percent win-the-war prolabor organization."
Carl Geiser, former president, UE local 1227, Long Island City
Carl Geiser is an avowed member of the Comnuuiist Party. He went to Spain
to aid the Spanish Loyalists in tlie civil war in tluit country. He traveled on
passport No. 380olS, dated March 29, 1937, and gave his age as 28. Earl P.rowder
testified under oath that 60 percent of the Americans who went to Spain to fight
with the so-called Abraham Lincoln Brigade were members of the Comnuuiist
Party. The 1938 New York Yearbook of the Young Communist League listed
Geiser as one of its members who had fought in Spain. (See page 4.)
In the Daily Worker of December 5, 1946, Geiser signed a protest of the Queens
County (New York) Connuunist Party against the refusal of Borough I'resident
Burke to grant the use of the Lost I5atlalion Hall for an election rally of the
Communist Party.
In 1933, the Communists set up a front organization known as the American
Committee for Struggle Against War. The executive director of this organiza-
tion was Donald Hendei'son, an avowed member of the Communist Party. Carl
Geiser was a member of the national committee of this organization. (See ap-
pendix IX of tlie Special Committee on Un-American Activities of the House of
Representatives, p. 409.)
Geiser was a member of the arrangements committee which set up the American
League Against War and Fascism in September 1933. This was a Communist-
front organization which the FBI, in an official memorandum of May 7, 1942,
cited as subversive. The name of the organization was later changed to the
American League for Peace and Democracy. (See appendix IX, p. 428.)
Carl Geiser was a member of the national committee for the Student Congress
Against War which was held at the University of Chicago, December 27-29, 1932.
It was a part of the Communist-front movement which was launched at Amster-
dam, Holland, in August 1932. See appendix IX, p. 1620.)
After his return from Spain, Geiser became executive secretary of the Friends
of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a Communist-front organization. (See Daily
Worker, July 21, 1939.)
Geiser was a speaker for the Sunnyside Peace Council, one of the many pred-
ecessors of the American Peace Mobilization. (See Daily Worker, April 18,
1940.)
Samuel Goldberg, business representative, UE local ISJ^, Camden, N. J., delegate to
19. 'p and 19Jf8 UE conventions
Samuel Goldberg signed the Civil Rights Congress manifesto defending the
Communist Party. ( See the Worker, May 25, 1947. )
In September 1948, the Civil Rights Congress took a statement to the White
House, denouncing the recent indictment of 12 national leaders of the Communist
Party. Samuel Goldberg was one of the signers of this statement. (See Daily
Worker, September 23, 1948.)
The Civil Rights Congress was cited as subversive by Attorney General Clark
on September 2.5, 1948.
Jack Goreliek, field organizer, UE district 1, Scranton, Pa.
Jack Goreliek is a member of the Comnuuiist Party. He is a protege of Joseph
Dougher, one of the leaders of the Communist Party in Pennsylvania, and a
member of the national committee of the party. It was through Dougher's in-
strumentality that Goreliek received his appointment as a VK organizer.
Goreliek attends the Communist Party meetings which are held in Ukraine
Hall, Scranton, and the executive committee meetings of the Communist Party
which are held in the home of Joseph Dougher in Wilkes-Barre. In May
194H, he attended a Communist Party leadership training school in Scranton.
Last year, Goreliek negotiated a UE collective-bargaining contract with the
Teleradio Engineering Corp. of Wilkes-Barre.
662 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
William Harper, chief steward, UE local 601, Pittsburgh, delegate to 1947 and
19Ji8 UE conventions
William Harper signed the Civil Rights Congress manifesto defending the
Communist Party. (See the Worker, May 25, 1947.)
In September 1948, the Civil Rights Congress took a statement to the White
House, denouncing the recent indictment of 12 national leaders of the Com-
munist Party. William Hari)er was one of the signers of this statement. (See
Daily Worker, September 23, 1948.)
Tlie Civil Rights Congress was cited as subversive by Attorney General Clark
on September 25, 1948.
Clarence A. Hathaway, business agent, Local 1139, Minneapolis, delegate to lO^I
and 1948 UE conventions
Clarence A. Hathaway was for many years editor of the Daily Worker,
Evidence of how fearful that paper was, and is, of deviating from the correct
Moscow line, is found in an exchange of cables between Hathaway, as editor,
and RUNAG, the official Soviet press bureau, on April 16, 1939, via RCA-
Communications.
RUNAG cables Hathaway as follows :
DAIWORK New York for Hathaway Stop Referring to your request Colon
Nothing known here about your concrete question Paragraph USSR foreign
policy clearly formulated in Stalins report on Eighteenth Party Congress as
published SUNWORKER special supplement Alarch 12 page 2 columns 3 and 4
RUNAG
DAIWORK is the cable address of the Daily Worker.
On October 10, 1940, a sensation was cause by Hathaway's expulsion from the
Communist Party while still editor of the Daily Worker and a member of its
"big three" central executive committee. His expulsion was for "failure to
meet personal and political responsibilities assumed by him; for deserting; and
for failing and refusing to take steps to rehabilitate himself."
Hathaway then dropped out of sight for more than a year, when he showed
up in New York, to serve a 30-day workhouse sentence for criminal libel. After
that time, he kept in the backgroimd of party affairs, although being seen at
party demonstrations and in conversation with party leaders.
When he popped up, safe in the arms of the UERMWA as business agent, there
was ample proof of his readmission to the Communist fold.
Hathaway was a member of the national board of the American League Against
War and Fascism, and was prominent in a score of other Communist front
organizations.
Fred Haug, business agent, UE Local 707, Cleveland, delegate to 1947 and 1948
UE conventions, former field organizer, UE district 6, Pittsburgh
Fred Haug has been a member of the Communist Party for many years.
Haug was one of the 550 signers of a public manifesto defending the Com-
munist Party issued by the Civil Rights Congress for release on May 25, 1947.
On June 22-23, 1935, the Communist Party held a conference in Washington,
D. C. The gathering was known as the National Emergency Conference Against
the Government wage program. Five well-known Communist Party members
were appointed as a "continuations committee" to carry on the work of this
conference. One of the five was Fred Haug. The secretary of the "continua-
tions conmiittee" was Phil Frankfeld who has been a top leader of the Com-
munist Party for about 20 years. (For the official Communist Party report on
this conference, see appendix IX, pp. 1217-1221, of the Special Committee on
Un-American Activities of the Hottse of Representatives.)
In the elections of 1936, Fred Haug was a candidate for "presidential elector"
on the Communist Party ticket in the State of New Jersey. The record of Hang's
candidacy is on file in the office of the Secretary of the State of New Jersey.
Hatig has been one of the top leaders of the Commtinist Party in Cleveland,
Ohio, since he tran.sferred his activities from New Jersey.
Haug was a signer of a Pittsl)tirgh Peace Proclamation, a forerunner of the
American Peace Mobilization. (See Daily Worker, January 3, 1940.)
Frank Hellman, UE Leader in Philadelphia
Frank Hellman is a member of the Communist Party and also an alien, having
been btu'ii in Rtimania. Early this year he was arrested for deportation.
In reporting Hellman's arrest, the UE News declared : "A wave of protest is
sweeping UE locals all over the country against the Justice Department's depor-
tation campaign against progressive labor leaders." Like all of the official
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 663
Communist Partv publications, the UE News describes the arrested Communists
as "progressive labor leaders." (See UE News, Marcli 20, 1048.)
For many years, Frauli Hellmau was district organizer ot tlie International
Workers Order in Philadelphia. Tlie IWO is an auxiliary ol the Communist
Party and has been cited as sul)versive by Attorney General Clarl<.
Hellman was a sponsor of the Tallentlre Jubilee Committee, a Communist
organization fornied to celebrate one of tlie anniversaries of the veteran Com-
munist Party leader, Norman Tallentire.
C. S. Jackson, UE international vice president, president, UE district 5, delegate,
to JD'fl and 19^8 UE conccntions
Clarence S Jackson is president of tlie Canadian district of the UERINIWA, and
by virtue of that position one of the UE international vice presidents.
Early in World War II, the Canadian Government interned Jackson as a
dangerous Communist." . „ ^, -r-.^-m^j-.nT \
Althoutih Jackson was a delegate to the 1948 convention of the UERMWA,
he did not attend. He was stopped at the border and denied entrance into the
United States by our immigration authorities.
Leo Jandreau, UE international vice president, president, UE district 3, htisiness
agent, UE local 301, Schenectady, delegates to lOJ,! and lOJ/S conventions
Leo Jandreau has been identified as a member of the Communist Party by
Salvatore M. Vottis in sworn testimony before the Committee on Un-American
Activities of the House of Representatives. Mr. Vottis testified that he had col-
lected Jandreau's Communist Party dues for a period of 2 or 3 years*. Vottis
was also financial secretary of UE Local 301. According to Vottis, Leo Jandreau
was signed up as a member of the Communist Party by Dorothy Loeb, a writer
for the Communist Party's Daily Worker. (See hearings of the Committee on
Un-American Activities, July 25, 1947, pp. 220-221.)
In January 1948, the Communists set up a front which was called the Citizens
Legislative Conference of New York. The Communist character of this con-
ference was fully exposed by Frederick Woltman in the New York World-
Telegram. Leo Jandreau was a member of this Communist front organization.
(See program, January 10, 1948.) ., ^^
Leo Jandreau is a member of the National Wallace for President Committee,
the outstanding Communist front movement of the present time. (See press
release, March 23, 1948.)
Sam Kanter, organizer, UE Local ^15
Sam Kanter is an avowed member of the Communist Party. Unlike many
other members of the party, Kanter makes no secret of his membership.
Kanter was a speaker for the Communist Political Association, the organization
which temporarily replaced the Communist Party from May 1944, to July 1945.
(SeeDaily Worker, September 12, 1944.) . „ ^
On January 22, 194(>, Kanter was one of the featured speakers at a rally ot
the Communist Partv in Brooklyn, N. Y, (See Daily Worker, January 20, 1946.)
Headlined on this program with Kanter was Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, one of the
two or three outstanding women Communists in America.
Fred Keller, -field organizer, UE district 7, delegate to 1947 and 19J,8 UE
conventions
Fred Keller testified under oath before the Special Committee on Un-American
Activities that he went to Spain as a member of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade at
the age of 23 and became a "commissar of war." Inasmuch as Earl Browder tes-
tified that 60 percent of the members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade were
members of the Communist Party, there is a strong probability that Keller could
not have risen to the rank of "commissar of war" unless he had been a member
of the Communist Party. Two other UE officials, Anthony DeMaio and Carl
Geiser, who also went to Spain with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade have admitted
that tliey were members of the Communist Party.
When Keller returned from Spain, he became an official of th.e Communist-
controlled Friends of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. ( See vol. 13, p. 7780, hear-
ings of the Special Conunittee on Un-American Activities.)
Keller was also a post commander of the Communist-controlled Veterans of
the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. (See Daily Worker, April 21, 1940.)
Keller was a member of the board of directors of the New York branch of
the American Committee for Protection of Foreign-Born, listed as subversive
by Attorney General Clark on September 25, 1948. (See organization's letter-
head, January 2, 1941.)
664 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Under the auspices of the Civil Riglits Congress, Keller signed a manifesto
defending the Communist Party. (See the Worker, May 25, 1947.) The CRC
is also on Attorney General Clark's latest list of subversive organizations.
Jolin Kelliher, president, UE Local 115^, Chicago, delegate to 1947 and 1948
TIE conventions
John Kelliher signed the Civil Rights Congress manifesto defending the
Communist Party. (See the Worker, May 25, 1947.)
Kelliher sent May Day greetings to the Chicago Star, Communist Party
newspaper in Chicago vphose name vpas recently changed to the Illinois Standard.
(See Chicago Star, April 26, 1947.)
Alex Kempf, secretary-treasurer, TJE Local 1119, Chicago, delegate to 19^7
VE convention
Alex Kempf signed the Civil Rights Congress manifesto defending the Com-
munist Party. (See the Worker, May 25, 1947.)
Kempf sent May Day greetings to the Chicago Star, Communist Party news-
paper in Chicago which is now known as the Illinois Standard. (See Chicago
Star, April 26, 1947.)
Morris Kerstein, member negotiating committee, VE Local 430, Neiv York, N. Y.,
delegate to 1947 UE convention
UE Local 430 has collective bargaining relations witli the employers associa-
tion covering 15,000 employees in radio and radio parts establishments in New
York Citv. Morris Kerstein is one of the important contract negotiators of
this UE local.
Morris Kerstein has been identified as a member of the Communist Party in
sworn testimony by James Conroy, former member of the party, before the
Committee on Un-American Activities of the House of Representatives.
Robert Kirkwood, UE international representative, delegate to 1948 UE
convention
Robert Kirkwood was a speaker at the Communist May Day parade in Chicago
in 1941. According to the Daily Worker, one of the banners which was featured
in the parade was "No Convoys, No AEF." This was in keeping with the line
of the Communist Party in that period of the Stalin-Hitler pact. Cospeakers at
the parade were Alfred Wagenknecht, then Illinois State secretary of the Com-
munist Party, and Ernest DeMaio, now president of UE district 11. Another
slogan featured in the parade, according to the Daily Worker, was "Free Earl
Browder." (See Daily Worker, May 4, 1941.)
Kirkwood signed the Civil Rights Congress manifesto defending the Commu-
nist Party. (See the Worker, May 25, 1947.)
Irving Krane, business manager, UE Local 1150, Chicago, delegate to 1947 and
1948 UE conventions
There can be little, if any, doubt that Irving Krane is a member of the Com-
munist Party.
For a number of years, Krane was Illinois State secretary of the International
Labor Defense. The ILD was accurately described by the FBI as "the legal arm
of the Communist Party," and it follows tliat any State secretary of the organiza-
tion would undoubtedly be a member of the Communist Party. ( See ILD letter-
head, January 20, 1939.) Krane was a delegate to the national conference of
the ILD in 1939 in Washington, D. C. (See Equal Justice, July 1939.) He was
also a member of the national conunittee of the International Labor Defense.
(See letterhead, December 25, 1939.)
A number of years ago, the Communists organized a front which was known
as the Better Chicago League. Irving Krane was one of its sponsors. (See Equal
Justice, February 1939.)
Krane sent greetings to the Chicago Star, Communist Party newspaper, on
May Day of 1047. (See Chicago Star, April 26, 1947.) Furthermore, he is a
member of the Chicago Star (now the Illinois Standard) subscription committee
of UE Local 1150, thus indicating a more than casual interest in this Communist
Party newspaper. (See Chicago Star, March 20, 1948.)
Under the auspices of the Civil Rights Congress, Krane signed a manifesto
defending the Communist Party. (See the Worker, May 25, 1947.) On Septem-
ber 25, 1948, Attorney General Clark listed the Civil Rights Congress as a sub-
versive organization.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 665
It is apparent that Irvinir Kraiu' is ons' of the romnimrsrs in the UERMWA on
whom the Communist Party calls for support of its enterprises and front organ-
izations.
Joseph Krcs, vice president, UE (Jistrict 7, business (uient, TJE Local 735, Cleveland,
(leleqate to J9.',7 ntuJ UI'iH UN cniirentions
Aceordin<x to UE News. Joseph Kres was named to lead CIO-PAC work in
Ohio and Kentn kv dnriim the 11)40 election campaign. He is now a memhei- of
the National Vv'allace for I'l'esident Committee. (See press release, March 23,
194S.)
In January ir44. the Daily Woi-ker. newspaper of the Comnmnist Party, cele-
hrat''d its twentieth anniversary. In two decades whicli (<nd(Hl that month, the
I)aily Worker had demonstrated a thousand times over that it was the qnisins
n'onthpiece of the Kremlin in the United States. Despite this evident fact, 144
CIO leaders hailed the paper on its twentieth anniversaiy. Amen-? them was
Joseph Kres.
Kres signed a letter denouncing the Cleveland Press for publishinc; the names
of Ohio siirnei-s of Communist Party election petitions. (See Daily Worker, Sep-
tember 19, 1940.)
I^nrin^v the period of the Stalin-Hitler pact, Kres denounced United States
naval convovs. in keeping with the Communist Party's position on that question.
( See Daily Worker. ]May':?0, 1941.)
Kres was a sponsor of the Schappes Defense Committee, a Communist front
oriranization set up to defend Morris U. Schappes who had been convicted for
periury. (See Daily Worker. October 13, 19^1.)
Kres was a siL-'ner of the "six-point program" of the Council on African
Affairs, a Communist front organization on Attorney General Clark's list of
September 25, 1948. ( See New Africa, October. 1945.)
Ki-es sent greetings to the 194 "i national conference of the American Committee
for Protection of Foreign-Born, an organization also on the Attorney General's
latest list of subversive groups. ( See the Lan)p, November 1945. )
Under the auspices of the Civil Rights Congress, Kres signed a manifesto
defending the Communist Part.v. (See the Worker. May 25, 1947.)
t'^am Kiishver, business manager UE Local 1110. Cliicago, delegate to 1947 and
19 'jS UE conventions
Sam Kushner's adherence to communism is evidenced by the fact that he sent
greetings to the Daily Worker on the occasion of its twentieth anniversary in
January 1944.
He also sent May Day greetings to the Chicago Star, a Communist Party news-
paper which changed its name to the Illinois Standard in September 1948. (See
Chicago Star, April 26, 1947.) He has contributed an article to the Chicago Star.
(See issue of August 21. 1948.)
Kushner signed the Civil Rights Congress manifesto defending the Communist
Part.v. (See the Worker, May 25, 1947.) He is head of the labor committee of
the Illinois Civil Rights Congress. (See Chicago Star, February 28, 1948.) The
CRC was listed as subversive by Attorney General Clark on September 25, 1948.
il/?7o T^athrop, legislative represenative, UE district 3
Milo Lathrop has been identified as a member of the Communist Party in
testimony before the Committee on Un-American Activities. In this testimony, he
was alleged to have been secretary of the Yale University unit of the Communist
Party.
Several years ago, Lathrop was on the staff of Consumers Union v/ith the
designatiim of field i-epresentative. (See Consumer Reports, November 1942.)
Consumers Union is the Commxmist front organization whose director is Arthur
Kallet who used the Communist Party alias "Edward Adams."
Lathrop was a speaker for the League of Women Shoppers, a Communist
front organization. (See New York Herald Tribune, September 28, 1941.)
James Lcrner, staff loriter, UE Neics
James Lerner's by line appears frequently in the UE News, oflScial organ of
the UERMWA.
Lerner joined the l^oung Communist League many years ago. He was a
sponsor of the YCL-controlled American Committee for the International
Student Congress Against War and Fiscism. (See program, December 29, 1934.
Lerner was a member of the national executive committee of the American
League Against War and Fascism, a Communist-front organization cited as sub-
95613 — 49— pt. 1 9
666 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
versive by Attorney General Clark on September 25, 1948. (See organization's
letterhead, August 22, 1935.) He was also a member of the secretarial stafi
of tiie American League Against War and Fascism.
Lerner was a member of the national council of the Communist-controlled
American Youth Congress.
He was a staff member of Champion, official organ of the Young Communist
League.
As a member of the YCL-coutrolled International Youth Commission, Lerner
was a visitor to Spain during the civil war in that country.
Lerner was a delegate to tlie Communist-controlled World Youth Congress
which was held at Vassar College in August 1938.
Richard Linsley, international representative, VE district 2
Richard Linsley's Communist connections are such as to make it reasonably
clear that he is a Communist.
In July 11343, Linsley was a member of the Greater Boston Reception Com
mittee to the Russian delegation.
Richard Linsley was a member of the Committee to Sponsor the Daily Worker
and the Worker 1945 fund campaign. This connection alone would make it
clear that Linsley is a Communist, by any reasonable definition of that word.
Linsley was also a niemijer of the Reiciistag- Fire Trial Anniversary Committee
whose announced purpose was the honoring of George Dimitroff, head af the
Communist International.
Linsley is a member of the board of trustees of the Samuel Adams School foi
Social Studies, the Communist Party's training school in Boston.
In 1941, Linsley sent an Armistice Day message to President Roosevelt pledg
ing "all production," thus reflecting the change in the Communist Party "line'
which occurred on June 22, 1941, when Hitler attacked the Soviet Union. (See
Daily Worker, November 11, 1941.)
Stanley Loney, UE international vice president; president, VE district 6; dele-
gate to 1947 and 19. '18 VE conventions
Stanley Loney is a member of the National Wallace-for-President Committee,
by far the outstanding Comnumist-front movement of the present time.
Early this year when Loney succeeded Thomas J. Fitzpatrick as president of
UE district 6, the district council urged all its locals to give "serious thought" to
the candidacy of Henry A. Wallace. The Communist Party is the most influen-
tial group in the Wallace-for-President movement, and the UERMWA is the
largest single reservoir of votes for the Progressive Party.
Stanley Loney was a delegate to the 1947 national conference of the American
Committee for Protection of Foroiiui Born, the oldest Communist-front organi-
zation in the United States and one of the subversive organizations listed by
Attorney General Clark on September 25, 1948. Loney was a member of the
nominating committee of the 1947 conference of the ACPFB. (See Proceedings
of the conference.)
hee Lundgren, international representative, VE local 1150 ; delegate to 19^7 and
19Jf8 VE conventions
Lee Lundgren sent May Day greetings to the Chicago Star, Communist Partj
newspaper in Chicago. (See Chicago Star, April 26, 1947.)
He is a member of the subscription committee of the Chicago Star (now the
Illinois Standard) in UE local 1150. (See Chicago Star, March 20, 1948.)
James Lustig, VE representative, district 4, delegate to 1947 and 191^8 VE
conventions
James Lustig is one of the most important of the many Communist Party mem-
bers who hold strategic positions in the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine
Workers of America. Lustig has not concealed his membership in the Com-
munist Party, as have many others. In 1931, he was candidate for alderman in
the Bronx on tlie Communist Party ticket.
In 1933, Lustig was organizer for the Steel and Metal Workers Industrial
Union. This union was one of the affiliates of the Trade Union Unity League,
the federation of Communist unions in the days when the Communist Party
maintained its own trade-union organizations. Lustig publicly endoi-sed the
Communist Party program, and said "Only the Communist Party as the party
of the working class represents the interests of the entire working population."
(See Daily Worker, November 6, 1933.)
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 667
Lustig was a delejrate to the eiiilitli convention of the Communist Party in
1934, and his convention speecii was published in the May-June issue of Party
Organizer tliat year.
Lustig was one of the 144 CIO Communist U-aders who hailed the Daily
Worker on its twentieth anniversary in 1944. (See the Worlcer, January t),
1944.)
Lustig was a sponsor of the seditious American Peace Mobilization, and its
meeting of April 5. 1941.
He was also a sponsor of a Communist front organization which was linown
as the Citizens Emergency Conference for Interracial Unity.
He was a member of the Trade Union Committee to Elect Win-the-War Candi-
dates, a Communist-front organization.
In Oct; ber 1937, James Lustig and his fellow oflScers in what was then known
as district 12 of the United Electrical and Radio Workers of America urged all
their affiliated locals to send delegates to the Pittsburgh congress of the American
League Against War and Fascism.
In 1940, Lustig was a member of the Provisional May Day Committee, the
Communist group which planned the party's May Day pam<le and other cele-
brations. ( See Daily Worker, March 23, 1940.)
He was a participant in the Communist Party's April 6 peace I'ally in 1940.
This was one of the Nation-wide affairs which led up to the formation of the
American Peace Mobilization.
On the occasion of the twenty-fourth anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolu-
tion, Lustig hailed the Soviet Union and joined in the Kremlin's croy for "a
second front." ( See Daily Worker, November 9, 1941. )
As a member of the national board of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Commit-
tee Lustig has been convicted of contempt of Congress.
In 1947, the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship called a joint
conference against intervention in Greece and Turkey. Lustig was made a
member of the continuation committee of the conference. (See Daily Worker,
March 19, 1947.) Lustig's participation in this affair was simply one of an
endless series of ways in which the leaders of tlie UERMWA have demonstrated
their subservience to the foreign policy of the Kremlin.
Lustig has been a sponsor of the American Russian Institute, a Communist
front which disseminates pro-Soviet propaganda.
Walter Mandra, recordiny secretary, TJE Local 1J19, Chicago
Walter Mandra sent May Day greetings to tlie Chicago Star (now renamed the
Illinois Standard), the Communist Party newspaper of Chicago. (See Chicago
Star, April 26, 1947.)
Mandra signed the Civil Rigiits Congress manifesto defending tlie Communist
Party in IVIay 1947. (See the Worker, May 25, 1947.) The Civil Rights Congress
was cited as subversive by Attorney General Clark on September 25, 1948.
James E. Marino, field organiser, UE district 2
James E. Marino teaches at the Samuel Adams School for Social Studies, the
Communist Party's training school in Boston. This undoubtedly means that he
is a member of the Communist Party.
Marino was affiliated with the seditious American Peace Mobilization which
carried out the Communist Party "line" in the I'eriod of the Stalin-Hitler Pact.
According to the Daily Worker (May 2, 1941), James E. Marino was a delegate
to the convention of the American Peace Mobilization which was held in New
York City on April 6, 1941.
While attending the convention of the American Peace Mobilization, Marino
affiliated himself with the Citizens Committee to Free Earl Browder.
Marino was a speaker for tlie Massachusetts Peace Council, an affiliate of tlie
American Peace Mobilization. (See Daily Worker, June 19, 1941.)
Lemu-el Markland, TJE international vice president, president, UE district 7,
delegate to 19'i7 and 10.'/8 VE conventions
Lemuel Markland is a member of the National Wallace for President Commit-
tee, the outstanding Communist front movement at the present time. (See press
release, March 23, 1948.)
Markland signed the Civil Rights Congress manifesto denouncing the recent
indictment of 12 national leaders of the Communist Party. (See Daily Worker,
September 28, 1948.)
66S COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Sidney Mason, Justness manager, UE Local 475. delegate to 19.'i7 UE convention
Sidney Mason's record discloses tlm.t he is one of the numerous Communists
who occupy strate.iac leadership of the UERMWA.
According to the Daily Worker (June 6, 1946), Sidney Mason is a member of
the executive committee of the American Jewish Labor Council. This council
is not even thinly veiled as a Communist organization. The ma.iority of its
15 members are well-known members of the Communist Party. With one excep-
tion, all of the others are well-known adl)erents of the Communist Parry line
in all matters. This single exception is M. Hedley Stone. For years Stone
also followed the Communist Party line, but as treasurer of the National Mari-
time Union he has recently broken with the Communist Party leadership along
with NMU's president, Joseph Curran.
Mason was a member of the Citizens Committee to Free Earl Browder. This
committee was an auxiliary of the Conununist Party, having the objective of
securing the release of Earl Browder from the Atlanta Federal prison (see Daily
Worker, December 28, 1941).
He was also a sponsor of the Committee for Jewish Writers and Artists. This
committee was organized in the summer of 1943 to support the propaganda
mission of two Soviet Government agents. Solomon Michoels and Itzik Feffer,
who were sent to this country to counteract the adverse effect which the Soviet
executions of Ehrlich and Alter, Polish Socialists, occasioned in the United States.
The committee sponsored a meeting at the Polo Grounds on July 8, 1943.
Sidney Mason was one of the 144 CIO Communist leaders who publicly bailed
the Daily Worker on the occasion of its twentieth anniversary in January 1944.
The Daily Worker is the seditious newspaper of the Communist Party.
Mason was also a member of the executive committee of the Brooklyn Non-
partisan Legislative Conference, a Communist-front organization which convened
in Brooklyn, N. Y., on February 27, 1944. The chairman of this organization
was the pro-Communist clergyman, William Howard Melish. It numbered
among the members of its executive committee well-known Communists such
as Peter V. Cacchione, Leo J. Binder, and Arthur Osman.
Mason has been a sponsor of the American Paissian Institute, a Communist-
front propaganda agency.
Mason was a member of the resolutions committee of the 1947 Clevohind
national conference of the American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born,
an organization cited as subversive by Attorney General Clark.
Dave Mates, district representative, TJE district 9, delegate to 19-'i7 and 19^8
UE conventions
A number of the veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade who fought in
Spain have obtained jobs with the UERMWA. Dave Mates is listed by the
State Department as one of those v\ho went to Spain during the civil war in
that country. Earl Browder testified before the Special Committee on Un-
American Activities that 60 percent of the members of the Abraham Lincoln
Brigade were members of the Communist Party.
Ashton Marshall, negotiator, UE Local 7/75
Ashton Marshall was a delegate to the meeting of the American Peace Mobiliza-
tion which convened in New York City on April 6, 1941. It will be recalled that
the APM was the notorious Communist-front organization which propagandized
for the Communist Party line during the period of the Stalin-Hitler pact. It
is hardly possible that any of those who participated in the activities and meetings
of the APM were unaware of its completely Communist complexion (see Daily
Worker, May 2, 1941).
Ashton Marshall signed a petition of the Citizens Committee to Free Earl
Browder while he was in attendance, as a delegate, at the meeting of the American
Peace Mobilization.
William, Mastriani, chief shop steivard, UE Local 301, Schenectady, delegate to
19.'i7 and 19Jf8 UE conventions
William Mastriani has been identified as a member of the Communist Party
by Salvatore M. Vottis in sworn testimony before the Committee on Un-American
Activities of the House of Representatives (see hearings, July 25, 1947, p. 221).
Vottis was financial secretary of the Communist Party in Schenectady for a period
of 9 years.
Mastriani signed the Communist Party's nominating petition in 1946.
The position of chief shop steward in local 301 of the UERMWA is of the great-
est importance, inasmuch as this local represents some 13,000 members in the
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 669
highly important General Electric plant in Schenectady, N. Y. The evidence
that William Mastriani, who holds this position, is a member of the Communist
Party is overwhelming.
Matthew Matison, field organiser, VE district 2
Matthew Irving Matison went to Spain as a member of the Abraham Lincoln
Brigade in 1937 at the age of 23. lie was another of the members of this
Communist-controlled outfit who graduated into the ranks of UE officials.
In keeping with the Communist Party line of the day, Matison participated in
a Boston demonstration demanding a second front in 1942 (see Daily "Worker,
May 7, 1942).
James Mattes, UE Director of Organization
Since his retirement from the armed forces in October 1945, the power of James
Matles in the UP^KMWA has grown by leaps and bounds. It is safe to say that
neither Albert J. Fitzgerald nor Julius Emspak is a more dominant figure in the
affairs of the UERMWA than James Matles. He was a key figure in the union
prior to his entering the armed forces of this country.
James Matles, although still a young man, is an old-time Communist. At the
age of 24 (in 1933), he had already attained prominence as a Communist leader
in the trade-union field. At that time he was secretary of the Steel and Metal
Workers Industrial Union. This latter union was an affiliate of the Trade Union
Unity League. In those days the Communist Party liad its own federation of
trade-unions known as the Trade Union Unity League which was headed by
William Z. Foster, national chairman of the Communist Party.
According to the Daily Worker of November 6, 1933, James Matles publicly
endorsed the program of the Communist Party.
The best evidence that Matles is a Communist is to be found in the following
statement which he signed for release to the press : "Only the Communist Party
as the party of the working class represents the interests of tne entire working
population * * *."
Matles and three of his fellow officers in the UERMWA sent greetings to the
American Shxv Congress in August 1944. The American Slav Congress is the
principal Communist-front organization for persons of Slavic descent in the
United States. It has been cited as subversive by Attorney General Clark.
Numerous former Communist Party members are able to identify Matles as a
member of the parts'. He is still an alien, having been born in Hungary and
never naturalized.
Edward Matthews, UE international representative, delegate to 19/(7 UE con-
vention
Edward Matthews is international representative of the United Electrical,
Radio, and Machine Workers of America, CIO, in charge of that union's dealings
with Westinghouse. That highly responsible position makes it clear that Mat-
thews is one of the key figures in the UERMWA.
Matthews was a member of the National Labor Committee Against War, an
affiliate of the seditious American Peace Mobilization.
New significance has been added to affiliation with the American Peace Mobili-
zation by virtue of a recent decision of the United States Supreme Court. One
Morton Friedman was dismissed from his Federal job with the War Manpower
Commission because he had been affiliated with the APM. Friedman appealed
his case to the courts, which sustained the Government. The case was carried
to the Supreme Court, which, in the middle of March 1947, refused to review it,
thus, in effect, upholding the verdict of the lower courts.
Matthews has been identified as a member of the Communist Party in sworn
testimony before a congressional committee.
William Mauscth, field organiser, UE Local II46, Minneapolis delegate to 1948 UE
convention
William Mauseth is a self-declared member of the Communist Party (see New
Leader, January 3, 1948).
Mauseth was a speaker for the Communist-controlled Civil Rights Committee
in Minneapolis (see Sunday Worker, May 5, 1940).
He was a member of the Minnesota State Committee To Free Earl Browder
(see Daily Worker, November S, 1941).
He was also a signer of the nationally organized Citizens Conunittee To Free
Earl Browder (see Sunday Worker, January 25, 1942).
95613—49 — pt. 1 10
670 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
On the twentieth anniversary of the Daily Worker, Mauseth sent his greetings
to that newspaper of the Communist Party (see tlie Worker, January 9, 1944).
Mauseth wrote the Daily Worker, as follows: "Please accept my greetings and
congratulations upon the twentieth anniversary of your service to the American
labor movement. Yours for speedy victory over the enemies of the people."
Mauseth was 1 of the 550 signers of the Civil Rights Congress manifesto
defending the Communist Party (see the Worker, May 25, 1947).
Victoria Mazzie, field organizer, UE Local 1225, field organiser, UE Local JpS
Victoria Mazzie is a member of the Communist Party. In 1940, she was
described as a member of the Young Communist League in an article in the Daily
Worker which told of a protest rally in front of the French consulate in New
York. Speakers at this Communist Party demonstration included Robert Minor
and Peter V. Cacchione (see Daily Worker, April 10, 1940).
Victoria Mazzie was also a candidate for Congress from Brooklyn on the
Communist Party ticket (see Daily Worker, August 5, 1940).
Clifford T. McAvoy, TIE international representative
Clifford T. McAvoy has been identified as a member of the Communist Party
by Salvatore M. Vottis in sworn testimony before the Committee on Un-American
Activities of the House of Representatives (see hearings, July 25, 1947).
McAvoy was ousted from his position as deputy welfare commissioner of New
York City as a result of charges of communism against him.
McAvoy has long been known as a veteran Communist fellow traveler, even if
not a member of the Communist Party. His affiliations with Communist-front
organizations include the following :
American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born.
American Society for Cultural Relations with Italy.
Citizens Committee for Harry Bridges.
Citizens Emergency Conference for Interracial Unity.
Committee for Citizenship Rights.
Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor.
Council for Pan American Democracy.
National Council of American-Soviet Friendship.
National Federation for Constitutional Liberties.
Nevt' York Committee for Protection of Foreign Born.
New York Conference on Inalienable Rights.
New York State Conference on National Unity.
Open Letter for Closer Cooperation with the Soviet Union.
S<'happes Defense Committee.
School for Democracy.
Soviet Russia Today.
Statement Defending the Communist Party.
Statement Against United States Policy in Mexico.
Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
Win-the-Peace Conference.
Bernard J. McDonongh, president, UE Local 1119, Chicago, delegate to 19'it and
1948 UE conventions
Bernard J. McDonough is unquestionably a member of the Communist Party.
This conclusion is based on the fact that he is the president of the People's
Publishing Association, the organization which published the Communist Party
newspaper in Chicago, the Chicago Star (see Chicago Star, May 15, 1948).
McDonough is candidate for auditor in Illinois on the Progressive Party ticket,
the party of Henry A. Wallace and the Communists (see Chicago Star, May 15,
194S).
McDonough signed the Civil Rights Congress manifesto defending the Com-
munist Party (see the Worker, May 25, 1947).
James McLeish, international UE vice president, president, UE district 4, delegate
to 1947 and 1948 UE convention
James McLeish's record of Communist affiliations is such as to mark him
definitely as a Communist.
In May 1946, McLeish was a sponsor of a conference, held in Newark, N. J.,
for the purpose of raising funds for the Communist Party's newspaper, the Daily
Worker. This affiliation alone is sufficient to indicate where McLeish's ideologi-
cal sympathies lie. He was also a member of the Committee to Sponsor the
Daily Worker and the Worker 1945 fund campaign. In January 1944, McLeish
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 671
was one of 144 CIO Communist leaders who publicly hailed the Daily Worker
on the occasion of its twentieth anniversary.
McLeish was a participant in the April 6 peace rally (1940) which was staged
by the Communists as a part of a Nation-wide movement leading up to tlie forma-
tion of tlie seditious American Peace IMohilization. Always obedient to the line
of the Communist Party, McLeish hailed the twenty-fourth anniversary of the
Bolslievik Revolution and joined the Kremlin's cry for "a second front." This
latter position taken by McLeish was diametrically opposed to his position at
the April C peace rally.
Under the auspices of the Civil Rights Congress, McLeish signed a public mani-
festo in defense of the Communist Party (see tlie Worker, May 25, 1947). The
Civil Rights Congress appears on Attorney General Clark's list of subversive
organizations.
He was also affiliated with the Citizens Committee to Free Earl Browder. He
was a member of the Citizens Nonpartisan Committee for the reelection of
Benjamin J. Davis, Jr., to the city council. Davis is a publicly avowed member
and leader of the Communist Party.
McLeish was also affiliated with the Committee for Jewish Writers and Artists,
a Communist-front organization which staged a pro-Soviet rally at the Polo
Grounds, New York City, in 1943.
He was a sponsor of the End Jim Crow in Baseball Committee.
In December 1943, McLeish was a member of the Reichstag Fire Trial Anni-
versary Committee which was set up to honor Georgi Dimitrov, former head of
the Communist International.
Wesley Mitchell, executive hoard member; UE district council 4, delegate to 19^7
and IdJfS conventions
Wesley Mitchell sent May Day greetings to the Daily Worker in 1946 when
he was a member of the strike committee at the Phelps-Dodge plant at Eliza-
beth, N. J. ( see Daily Worker, April 28, 1946) .
Mitchell signed the Civil Rights Congress manifesto defending the Communist
Party (see the Worker, May 25, 1947).
Herbert Morais, UE research assistant, international office
The Rapp-Coudert committee of the New York State Legislature found in 1942
that Herbert Morais, then a member of the faculty of Brooklyn College, was a
member of the Communist Party. As a result of his exposure by the Rapp-Cou-
dert committee, Morais was forced out of his position in Brooklyn College. The
committee found that Morais used the Communist Party alias "Richard Enmale."
The name "Enmale" was derived from the tirst syllables of the names of Engels,
Marx, and Lenin — the three founding fathers of the Communist movement.
Today, Herbert Morais is a member of the faculty of the Jefferson School of
Social Science. This is the Communist Party's training school which is on Attor-
ney General Clark's list of subversive organizations.
A few years ago. International Publishers brought out a volume of Jack Hardy
which was entitled "The First American Revolution." Jack Hardy's real name
is Dale Zysman. Under the latter name, he taught in the New York public
schools until his membership in the Communist Party was highlighted by expos-
ures of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities of the House of Rep-
resentatives and later by the Rapp-Coudert committee of the New York State
Legislature. The First American Revolution was a part of the Comnumist Party's
program to rewrite American history according to the theories of communism.
Herbert Morais, under the alias of Richard Enmale, wrote the preface to Jack
Hardy's First American Revolution.
Herbert Morais was an editor of New Currents. New Currents was the organ
of the American Committee of Jewish Writers, Artists and Scientists. It was
subsidized by the Sound View Foundation, repository of Communist I'arty funds.
The Sound View Foundation was headed by three well-known Communists, Alfred
Hirsch, Robert W. Dunn, and Joseph R. Brodsky. It dispensed funds to Com-
munist enterprises only. For example on April 20, 1943, it made out a check
to the Daily Worker for $1,000.
Morais has written for the Communist Party's New Masses (see issue of June
11, 1946). He has been a contributing editor of the Communist quarterly. Science
& Society, and contributed an article entitled "Marx and Engels on America" to
the winter 1948 issue of that publication.
Morals' position In the UE organization is one of great strategic importance.
He is assistant to James Matles.
672 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Sylvia Muth, member executive board, TIE Local 103, Camden, N. J., delegate to
lOJtl UE convention
Sylvia Muth was a delegate to the 1941 convention of the American Peace
Mobilization and a signer of the petition of the Citizens Committee to Free Earl
Browder, both of which organizations were notoriously controlled by the Com-
munist Party (see Daily Worker, May 2, 1941).
Miss Muth is a member of the small Communist group which controls UE Local
103, the local of the UERMWA which has collective-bargaining relations with
the very important Radio Corp. of America at Camden, N. J.
Tom Neill, business agent, TIE Local 427, Hoboken, N. J., former executive secre-
tary, UE national veterans committee
At the height of the Communist sabotage strikes in this country during the
period of the Stalin-Hitler pact, Tom Neill signed a statement defending the Com-
munist Party which received a full-page spread in the Daily Worker (see Daily
Worker, March 5, 1941).
Neill was one of the American delegates to the World Youth Conference held
in London, October 31 to November 9, 1945. This gathering was under the com-
plete domination of Communists from many countries. It set up a new Com-
munist international called the World Federation of Democratic Youth.
Neill signed the Civil Rights Congress manifesto defending the Communist
Party (see the Worker, May 25, 1947).
Russell Nixon, UE Washington legislative representative
As early as 1940, Russell Nixon appeared as one of the signers of a petition
to Governor Olson of California, to free Sam Darcy. Darcy, whose real name
is Dardeck, had been extradited by the State of California from Pennsylvania
where he was State chairman of the Communist Party. Darcy was wanted in
California for false registration as a voter in 1934. This i>etition was circulated
and published by the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties. This
latter organization was cited as subversive by Attorney General Clark. The
NFCL was subsequently merged, in the spring of 1946, with the International
Labor Defense to form the Civil Rights Congress, also on Attorney General
Clark's list.
Came the war, and it was the same old story. In spite of his obvious Communist
connections, Nixon was given a commission in the Army. He was released from
military service when wires were pulled for his appointment to an extremely
important office, namely, that of American member of the German external-
property commission, with the assent of the State Department. Although he was
the American member of this commission, Nixon listened to his Moscow master's
voice and fought furiously for Russian j)articipation in the search for German
assets in western Europe. When defeated on this Soviet-inspired front, he
resigned with a blast against the State Department, charging, among other tilings,
a plot against Russia. The State Department promptly abandoned diplomacy
long enough to call Nixon a liar, in effect.
Immediately on his resignation from his post in Germany, Nixon resumed hia
job with the UERMWA in Washington, and again became active in Communist-
front organizations. He was a member of the resolutions committee of the Win-
the-Peace Conference held in Washington in April 1946. This was the confer-
ence where one of the principal Communist fronts of recent years was launched,
namely, the National Committee To Win the Peace.
In February 1946, Nixon was the principal speaker at a mass meeting In
Washington, D. C, under the auspices of the International Workers Order which
the FBI has called one of the largest of the Communist-front organizations.
During the war, Nixon was a principal speaker for the National Wartime Con-
ference of the Professions, the Sciences, the Arts, etc. This, too, was an obvious
front of the Communist Party.
Nixon was a speaker at the Communist May Day Rally in Philadelphia in
1948. One of his colleagues on the program was Louis Weinstock, a member of
the national committee of the Communist Party (see the Worker, April 28, 1946).
He was a .sponsor of a Communist front which called itself the National Con-
ference on the German Problem (see official press release, March G, 1947).
He was a speaker for the Civil Rights Congress, one of the organizations listed
as subversive by Attorney General Clark (see Daily Worker, October 6, 1947).
He was affiliated with the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship,
also branded as subversive by Attorney General Clark (see Soviet Russia Today,
November 1947 ) .
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 673
Nixon participated in the National Legislative Conference on Naturalization
and Deportation which was held in Washington at the call of the American
Committee for Protection of Foreign Born (see the Lamp, January-February
194S).
He has contributed articles to the Communist magazine, Soviet Russia Today,
issues of January, March, May, and June. 1918.
He was a speaker in Chicago for the Communist front which called itself the
Committee To Defend the Bill of Rights (see Chicago Star, June 5, 1948).
Andrew Overgaard, business agent, TIE Local .'i20
Andrew Overgaard has been a member of the Communist Party for many
years.
In 1933, Overgaard publicly declared liis support of the Communist Party
program along with such UE leaders as James Matles and James Lustig (see Daily
Worker, November 6, 1933).
In 1934, Overgaard was secretary of the Trade Union Unity Council, a Com-
munist Party organization headed by William Z. Foster.
Overgaard supported the friends of the Soviet Union. He had gone to Moscow
as a delegate to the Red international of labor unions.
Victor Pasche, leader, UE Local 301, Schenectady
Victor Pasche is a member of the editorial committee which publishes the
Eletcrical Union News, official organ of local 301 at the General Electric plant in
Schenectady, N. Y.
Pasche has been associated with Communist-front groups for a number of
years. In 1940, he was a sponsor of the American Committee for Democracy and
Intellectual Freedom when that Communist-front organization was agitating
against the Rapp-Coudert investigation into communism in the State-supported
schools of New York.
In 1938, considerable publicity centered on the issue of Simon W. Gerson's
position as administrative assistant to the borough president of Manhattan.
Victor Pasche was one of the Communists and fellow travelers who rushed to the
defense of Gerson (see Daily Worker, February 10, 1938) .
Henry Phillips, delegate to IdJfl UE convention from TJE Local Ji2'i
Henry Phillips attended a Communist Party training .school for UE organizers
in February 1938. At the conclusion of the course of study, Phillips and his
fellow students (one of whom was Ruth Young) adopted a resolution calling for
the building of a more powerful Communist Party looking toward a Communist
revolution in the United States.
Ernst Pollock, busines agent, UE Local JfSl, Neicark, delegate to 19.'f7 and 19^8 UE
conventions
Ernst Pollock signed the Civil Rights Congress manifesto defending the Com-
munist Party. ( See The Worker, May 25, 1947. )
Pollock also signed the Civil Rights Congress statement denouncing the recent
indictment of 12 national leaders of the Communist Partj'. (See Daily Worker,
September 23, 1948.)
On September 25, 1948, Attorney General Clark cited the Civil Rights Congress
as a subversive organization.
Sol Potegal, business manager, UE Local Jf27, Bayonne, N. J.
Sol Potegal and his fellow officers of what was then known as District 12 of
the United Electrical and Radio Workers endorsed the American League Against
War and Fascism in a letter dated October 6, 1937.
Potegal was affiliated with the Citizens Committee To Free Earl Browder. ( See
Daily Worker, March 16, 1942.)
Potegal sent greetings to the Daily Worker on the occasion of the twentieth
anniversary of that Communist Party newspaper. (See The Worker, January
9, 1944.)
James Price, UE international vice president, UE president, District 1, delegate
to W-iy and 1948 UE conventions
James Price is a member of the National Wallace-for-President Committee, the
outstanding Communist-front movement at the present time. (See press release,
March 23, 1948. )
Price sponsored the Communist-controlled United May Day Conference in
Philadelphia in 1946. (See Daily Worker, April 4, 1946.)
Price signed the Civil Rights Congress manifesto defending the Communist
Party. ( See the Worker, May 25, 1947. )
674 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Archie Rappaport, leader, VE District 4
Archie Rappaport was a student in a Communist Party training school for
UE leaders in February 1938. At the conclusion of the course of study Rappaport
and his fellow students adopted a resolution calling for a more powerful Com-
munist Party and looking toward a Soviet America.
Rappaport was a delegate to the convention of the American Peace Mobiliza-
tion in April 1941. At the meeting of this notorious Communist-controlled organ-
ization he signed a petition of the Citizens Committee to Free Earl Browder.
(See Daily Worker, May 2, 1941.)
Marie J. Reed, business agent, UE Local 7S5, Cleveland, delegate to 19Jf7 and
19Jf8 UE conventions
At the height of the Communist sabotage strikes during the period of the
Stalin-Hitler pact in 1941, Marie J. Reed signed a statement in defense of the
Communist Party, a statement which received a full-page spread in the Daily
Worker. ( See Daily Worker, March 5, 1941. )
Under the auspices of the Civil Rights Congress, Miss Reed signed a manifesto
defending the Communist Party. ( See the Worker, May 25, 1947. )
Henry Rhine, UE international representative, delegate to 19^7 and 1948 UE
conventions
Henry Rhine works for the UERMWA in the eastern Pennsylvania region or
UE District 1. He is a member of the Communist Party.
Late in 1933 Rhine was appointed a junior assistant in the NRA in Wash-
ington, D. C. For 6 years he was national organizer of the United Federal
Workers of America, CIO. Since 1943 he has been working for the UERMWA
in district 1.
Rhine has been a teacher at the Philadelphia School of Social Science and Art,
the Communist Party's training school in Philadelphia.
Rhine is prominent in UE negotiations with the important Radio Corp. of
America.
Ben Riskin, UE international representative, delegate to 1948 UE convention
Ben Riskin has been a member of the Communist Party for many years. His
party membership book, issued for the year 1943, was numbered 37414 and was
made out to "R. Burns."
Riskin was the originator of the idea of the portal-to-portal suits.
In 1935 he was an associated editor of the New Order, official organ of the
International Workers Order. The IWO is an auxiliary of the Communist Party.
An official memorandum of the FBI, dated ]\Iay 7, 1942, described the Interna-
tional Workers Order as "one of the strongest Communist organizations." The
masthead of the New Order for April-May 1935, shows Ben Riskin as one of the
magazine's associate editors. The table of contents given on this masthead
indicates that Ben Riskin was the author of an article entitled "May 1, 1935."
This issue of the New Order was a special May Day issue.
Excerpts from Riskin's article in the New Order read as follows :
"Over one-sixth of the earth has been established a workers' and farmers' land,
rising with incredible speed to a state of real general security and comfort,
crowned with an ever-growing richness of science and life.
"Like rats in a corner, the bosses with their backs against the wall resort to
their last resort — war. They hope to distract the attention of the workers from
them to 'foreign foes' — that is, to brother workers, gleefully hoping that the
damned nuisances will end the problem of unemployment by killing one another
off and make lots of profits for the bosses through munitions and high prices on
necessities in the meantime.
"And thus we find our present problems already outlined. * * * They are
the fight against imperialist war and thus for the defense of Soviet Russia and
Soviet China, the only workers' and farmers' lands."
These quotations clearly reflect Riskin's Communist attitudes toward American
industry and leave no doubt whatever that Riskin is a member of the Com-
munist Party.
In 1937 Riskin was on the staff of People's Press, a Communist Party-line
publication which was used as the official organ of the UERMWA.
Subsequently People's Press changed its name to Trade Union Service, Inc.
The latter is now located at 17 Murray Street, New York, N. Y., and is the pub-
lisher of UE News, official weekly organ of the United Electrical, Radio, and
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 675
Machine Workers of America. Trade Union Service, Inc., is owned by a group
of Communists and fellow travelers which includes Corliss Lamont and Frederick
Vanderbilt Field.
Charles Rivers, executive secretary, VE District 3, delegate to 19Ip and 1948
VE conventions
Witnesses are available who can testify of their own personal knowledge that
Charles Rivers is a member of the Communist Party. Rivers was on the scene
in Schenectady in the early days of the organization of UE Local 301 in that
General Electric city.
Rivers and his fellow officers of the United Electrical and Radio Workers
endorsed the American League Against War and Fascism in a letter dated Octo-
ber 6, 1937.
Rivers signed a petition of the Citizens Committee To Free Earl Browder.
( See Daily Worker, November 15, 1941. )
Anthony Salese, president, Local JiSO, New York City, delegate to 19^7 UE
convention
Local 430 of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America
(CIO) is one of the most important locals in the whole UERMWA, having bai:-
gaining representation for 15,000 radio and radio-parts employees in New York
City.
According to the Daily Worker of March 5, 1947, Anthony Salese (also known
as Tony) was a member of the Provisional May Day Committee.
This committee had charge of all arrangements for the Communist Party's
May day parade and celebrations in New York City. There was no secret what-
ever about this committee's being the instrument of the Communist Party.
It is clear from the personnel of the Provisional May Day Committee that it
was the agent of the Communist Party. Most of the members of the committee
are publicly avowed members of the Communist Party. The rest are Commu-
nist fellow travelers. Other radicals, such as Socialists, are conspicuous by their
absence.
Among the more prominent members of the Communist Party who served with
Salese on this committee were the following: Irving Potash, Jack Paley, Sam
Burt, Revels Cayton, Albert Kahn, Lewis Weinstock (member of the national
committee of the Communist Party), Rockwell Kent (president of the Interna-
tional Workers Order), Bonita Williams, Esther Letz, and Leon Wofsy.
Salese's membership on the Provisional May Day Committee clearly identifies
him as a Communist. Whether he holds a Communist Party membership card or
not is beside the point.
During the present year, Anthony Salese has served as a member of the Com-
munist-front organization which bears the imposing title of Citizens Committee
To Defend Representative Government. The objective of this front is to gain a
seat on the New York City Council for Communist Simon W. Gerson.
In February of this year Salese was a sponsor of the National Youth Assembly
Against Universal Military Training, a Communist-front organization set up to
serve the ends of the Kremlin.
Marcel Schei'cr, UE representative. District 4 delegate to 1947 UE convention
Marcel Scherer is a veteran member of the Communist Party. His membership
in the party is established conclusively by the fact that he ran for alderman on
the Communist Party ticket in Brooklyn in 1931. (See Dail Worker, November
3, 1931.)
During the First World War, Scherer was dismissed from Erasmus Hall High
School in New York for pacifist agitation. He was at that time an active member
of the Young People's Socialist League. In 1919, he achieved notoriety as an
agitator at the City College of New York.
On September 11, 1939, Benjamin Gitlow, former secretary of the Communist
Party, testified under oath concerning Scherer, as follows : "Scherer has held all
kinds of positions in the Communist Party. He has held various positions as a
section organizer and has been assigned by the executive committee to all kinds of
party work ; he is one of the oldest and most trusted members of the Communist
Party." On October 13, 1939, Maurice Malkin, a former member of the Com-
munist Party, testified before the Special Committee on Un-American Activities
concerning Marcel Scherer, as follows: "The leader of that (FAECT) is Marcel
Scherer. a charter member of the Communist Party ; joined the Communist Party
at Williamsburg branch, Brooklyn, 1919."
676 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
One of the most strategic assignments ever given Scherer by the Communist
Party was the national secretaryship of the Friends of the Soviet Union, the Com-
munist-front predecessor of the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship.
The FSU maintained a special department for the sending of technological in-
formation, industrial and military, to the Soviet Union. This work has been
carried on previously, beginning in 1921, by the Society for Technical Aid to Soviet
Russia, one of the very first Communist-front organizations in this country which
was later merged into the FSU. The Society for Technical Aid to Soviet Russia
was set up in this country by A. A. Heller on specific instructions from Moscow.
Its purpose was to cultivate and woo American scientists and technicians in the
hope that they would provide Soviet Russia with our industrial, scientific, and
military secrets and processes. Any information which they were willing to pass
on to Russia was sent through the medium of Heller's organization, and later
through Marcel Scherer's FSU .
After his work with the FSU, Scherer became one of the founders and inter-
national vice president of the Federation of Architects, Engineers, Chemists and
Technicians (FAECT), an affiliate of the CIO which is now a division of the
United Office and Professional Workers of America. The FAECT had many
collective-bargaining contracts with the most important defense industries in the
United States, including our Navy yards.
Today, Marcel Scherer, UE representative, is an instructor in two Communist
Party training schools, the Jefferson School of Social Science and the George
Washington Carver School. He has contributed articles to the Communist Party's
New Masses, and he has been affiliated with the following Communist-front or-
ganizations : American Peace Mobilization, American Relief Ship for Spain,
Campus Peace Strikes, Council for Pan-American Democracy, Coordinating Com-
mittee to Lift the Embargo, International Labor Defense, and North American
Spanish Aid Committee.
( See also testimony of Paul Crouch regarding Marcel Scherer, before the Com-
mittee on Un-American Activities, U. S. House of Representatives, May 24, 1949.)
William Scntner, TJE international vice president, president JJE District 8, dele-
gate to 1947 and 19Jf8 UE conventions
Although one of the highest officials in the UERMWA, William Sentner, has
never been an electrical, a radio, or a machine worker. He studied architecture
in Washington University in St. Louis, but never completed his studies. As an
artist, he joined the John Reed Club, a Communist-front organization named
after one of the founders of the American Communist Party, and became one of
the club's national officers. He also spent some time at sea. In other words,
Sentner owes his present strategic union post in a key industry to the operations
of the Communist Party's patronage machine and not to any experience or special
qualifications in this field of industry.
Sentner was classified as 1-A by his local draft board, but he was given defer-
ment at the request of the UERMWA. Moreover, he was selected as a member
of the National War Labor Board for Region No. 7 (Missouri) on February 17,
1943, and served in that capacity until his Communist record caught up with huu
and he was forced to resign on February 10, 1944.
It is unnecessary to prove by documentary evidence that William Sentner is a
member of the Communist Party. He admits it. He is proud of it. He has held
a number of official positions in the Communist Party since 1934. "When I
joined [the Communist Party]," he declared in an interview published in Fortune
magazine of November 1943, "I told everybody in town." He told Fortune that
he still solicits new Communist Party members, although he devotes most of his
time to union activities.
Sentner has been arrested on numerous occasions. In 1938, he was tried and
■found guilty of criminal syndicalism in connection with the Maytag strike at
Newton, Iowa. He was sentenced to 10 years in jail and a fine of $5,000. When
the Iowa criminal syndicalism law was found unconstitutional, he was released.
At the present time, Sentner is on the National Wallace-for-President Commit-
tee.
Sentner has been affiliated with the following Communist-front organizations :
American League for Peace and Democracy.
Citizens Committee to Free Earl Browder.
Civil Rights Congress.
Committee to Sponsor the Daily Worker and the Worker 1945 Fund Cam-
paign.
Commonwealth College.
International Labor Defense.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 677
John Reed Club.
National Federation for Constitutional Liberties.
National Wallace for President Committee.
New Theatre League.
Scottsboro Defense Committee.
Harold Simon, fortner president, UE Local 1227
Up until 2 years ago, Harold Simon was a leading Communist Party functionary
in the UERMWA. The Communist Party then promoted him to position on the
New York State secretariat of the Communist Party. While still holding his \)0-
sition as president of TE Local 1227, Simon was a publicly avowed member of the
Communist Party.
Simon was a speaker at the founding convention of the Commxmist Political
Association in May 1944.
He has been affiliated with the Greek-American Council, a Communist-front
organization which has been renamed the American Council for a Democratic
Greece. (See bulletin of the organization, January 1946.)
Adam 8tnit7i, vice president, UE Local 1119, Chicago
Adam Smith sent greetings to the Chicago Communist Party newspai)er, the
Chicago Star, for its May Day issue last year. (See Chicago Star, April 26,
1947.)
Smith signed the Civil Rights Congress manifesto defending the Communist
Party. (See The Worker, May 25, 1947.)
Albert Smith, LIE international representative, delegate to 1948 UE convention
Albert Smith was a signer of a statement in defense of the Communist Party
which received a full-page spread at the height of the Communist sabotage strikes
in the spring of 1941, during the period of the Stalin-Hitler pact. (See Daily
Worker, March 5, 1941.)
In 1942 Smith joined with other pro-Soviet UE leaders in demanding a "second
front." This was a subject of considerable Communist Party agitation at the
time. (See Daily Worker, July 26, 1942.)
Smith signed a petition of the Citizens' Committee to Free Earl Browder. (See
Daily Worker, January 25, 1942.)
Alice Smith, vice president, UE Distirct 11, delegate to 19^7 and 1948 UE con-
ventions
Alice Smith is an instructor in the Abraham Lincoln School, the Communist
Party's training school in Chicago, an institution listed as subversive by Attorney
General Clark.
She signed the Civil Rights Congress manifesto defending the Communist Party.
(See Daily Worker, May 25, 1947.)
At the present time she is a member of the national committee of the Progres-
sive Party, the party of Henry A. Wallace and the Communists. (See Chicago
Star, July 31, 1948.)
Al Steam, business agent, UE Local 4S0
Al Stearn was one of the 144 Communist leaders who publicly hailed the Daily
Worker (Communist Party newspaper) on the occasion of its twentieth anni-
versary in January 1944.
It scarcely needs to be said that anyone who sponsors the Communist Party's
newspapers, the Daily Worker and the Worker, is actively supporting the cause
of communism. It makes little or no difference whether such a sponsor is a
card-holding, dues-paying member of the Communist Party.
Stearn signed a statement of .Jewish labor-union leaders defending the Soviet
Government's execution of the Polish Socialist trade-unionists. Alter and Ehrlich.
(See Daily Worker, March 25, 1943.)
Under the auspices of the Civil Rights Congress, Stearn signed a manifesto
defending the Communist Party. (See The Worker, May 25, 1947.)
It is significant that Al Stearn was named chairman of the New York Trade
Union Committee for Wallace and Taylor. (See Chicago Star, March 13, 1948.)
Albert Stonkus, business agent, UE Local 475
Albert Stonkus was a member of the National Labor Committee Against War,
an affiliate of the seditious American Peace Mobilization.
He was a member of the Committee for Jewish Writers and Artists, which
defended the Soviet execution of the Polish trade-unionists. Alter and Ehrlich.
(See Daily AVorker, July 6, 1943.)
678 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
He was also one of the 144 Communist CIO leaders who publicly hailed the
Daily Worker on the occasion of its twentieth anniversary in January 1944.
He was a sponsor of the Consumers' National Federation, an organization
described as a "transmission belt" by Earl Browder.
The Communist-front affiliations of Albert Stonkus go back more than a decade.
He was a delegate to the American League Against War and Fascism, a front
cited as subversive by Attorney General Clark last Saturday. ( See Daily Worker,
August?, 1947.)
Victoj- Teich, shop chairman, TIE Local 1227
Victor Teich was a member of the American Student Union's national executive
committee, a Communist-front organization which operated in schools and colleges
from coast to coast.
Teich publicly declared his support of Israel Amter for Governor of New York
in 1942. Amter was the candidate of the Communist Party. ( See Daily Worker,
October 27, 1942.)
Ernest Thompson, delegate to 19^7 HE convention
Ernest Thompson signed a manifesto of Negro leaders against outlawing the
Communist Party. All of the signers were persons of substantial Communist-
front records. (See press release, April 21, 1947.)
Thompson teaches at the George Washington Carver School, Communist
Party training school in Harlem which Attorney General Clark has listed as
subversive.
Thompson is a sponsor of the Negro Labor Victory Committee, also listed as
subversive by the Attorney General. (See letterhead, October 11, 1943.)
He has written for the Communist Party's New Masses. (See New Masses,
August 7, 1945.)
He was a sponsor of the Win-the-Peace Conference, a Communist-controlled
gathering held in Washington, D. C, in April 1946.
He was a delegate to the Citizens Emergency Conference for Interracial
Unity, another Communist-front organization.
He signed a petition of the Citizens Committee to Free Earl Browder. (See
Daily Worker, March 16, 1942.)
He signed the Civil Rights Congress statement denouncing the recent in-
dictment of 12 national leaders of the Communist Partv. (See Daily Worker,
September 23, 1948.)
He is a sponsor of the newest Communist-front organization for Negroes,
known as the First Line of defense. ( See the Worker, August 29, 1948. )
'Nicholas Tomasetti, UE field organizer, delegate to 19^7 and 19^8 UE conventions
Nicholas Tomasetti was a signer of a petition of the American Committee for
Democracy and Intellectual Freedom, a Communist-front organization.
Tomasetti was a sponsor of the American Peace Mobilization. ( See program,
April 5, 1941.)
Tomasetti signed a statement In defense of the Communist Party at the
height of the Communist sabotage strikes during the period of the Stalin-
Hitler pact. (See Daily Worker, March 5, 1941.)
Tomasetti was also affiliated with the Schappes Defense Committee. (See
New York Times, October 9, 1944.) Morris Schappes was a Communist Party
professor at New York University who had been convicted for perjury.
Jeffrey Van Clief, negotiator, UE Local 430, New York, delegate to 1947 and
1948 UE conventions
Jeffrey Van Clief has been identified as a member of the Communist Party
in sworn testimony by James Conroy before the Committee on Un-American
Activities of the House of Representatives.
UE Local 430 has bargaining relations with radio and radio-parts manu-
facturers covering 15,000 employees in New York City.
Philip Van Gelder, UE international representative, delegate to 194^ UE
convention
Philip Van Gelder was one of the founders of the Industrial Union of Marine
and Shipbuilding Workers of America (CIO). He was its secretary-treasurer
until he was inducted into the armed services. When he came out of the Army,
his old union defeated him for reelection to his former position in a bitter
fight over the issues of communism. Van Gelder was thereupon promptly taken
to the arms of the UERMWA as an international representative.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 679
Van Gelder was a member of the Communist-controlled National Mooney
Council of Action. ( See Daily Worker, May 12, 1933. )
Van Gelder is a sponsor of the National Council of American-Soviet Friend-
ship. (See letterhead, May 4, 1948.)
He was a sponsor of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee. (See sur-
vey of work, March 11, 1942.)
He signed the Civil Rights Congress manifesto defending the Communist
Party. ( See The Worker, May 25, 1947. )
He also signed the Civil Rights Congress statement denouncing the recent
indictment of 12 national leaders of the Communist Party. (See Daily Worker,
September 23, 1948.)
Edicard Waishington, president, Local 1221, New York City, delegate to 19^7 and
1948 UE conventions
Local 1227 of the UERMWA claims 3,500 members with contracts in 52 plants
in Queens, Manhattan, and Brooklyn.
From a report in the Daily Worker, it is learned that Edward Washington
got his job as a milling-machine operator largely through the efforts of the
Negro Labor Victory Committee. This committee is a notorious Communist-
front organization. (See Daily Worker, December 3, 1946.) It is also ap-
parent that Washington rates very favorable publicity in the Communist Party's
Daily Worker. This kind of publicity is usually reserved for the faithful mem-
bers of the Communist Party.
Edward Washington is a member of the executive board of UE District Council
Four. He was also a delegate to the 1947 UE convention and in that capacity,
according to the Daily Worker, "helped rout the red-baiters * * *." The
Daily Worker also stated that Washington was "proud that 'in our own UE'
those who sought to 'discredit Communist unionists' had been defeated." This
is sufficient to indicate quite clearly that Edward Washington is wholly on the
side of the Communists.
According to the Daily Worker of March 5, 1947, Edward Washington was
a member of the Provisional May Day Committee of 1947. This was the com-
mittee which made all preparations for the Communist Party's May Day parade
and celebrations. Among the well-knovrn Communist Party members on this
committee were the following : Irving Potash, Louis Weinstock ( member of the
national committee of the Communist Party), Nicholas Carnes, Rockwell Kent,
Howard Fast, Joseph Winogradsky, Audley Moore, Bonita Williams, Leon Wofsy,
and Samuel Patterson.
Local 1227 of the UERMWA and its officials have long been identified with the
Communist Party. In fact, this local has been one of the most notoriously
Communist-controlled units of the UERMWA. It is, therefore, not surprising
that it should elect a man with Edward Washington's Communist record as its
president.
The Daily Worker's reference to Washington as a "church leader" was just
so much typical Communist double-talk.
Under the auspices of the Civil Rights Congress, a Communist front on Attor-
ney General Clark's list of subversives, Edward Washington signed a manifesto
in defense of the Communist Party. (See the Worker. May 25, 1947.)
All of the foregoing constitutes cumulative evidence which leaves no doubt
that Edward Washington is a Communist.
Robert Whisart, member, UE General Executive Board, secretary-treasurer,
UE District 11
Robert Whisart was affiliated with the Citizens Committee to Fi-ee Earl
Browder. ( See Sunday Worker, January 25, 1942. )
Whisart sent greetings to the Daily Worker on the occasion of its twentieth
anniversary. (See the Worker, January 9, 1944.)
Whisart was a signer of a petition of the National Federation for Constitu-
tional Liberties in January 1943.
Tom Wright, managing editor, UE Netvs
Tom Wright was a delegate to the convention of the American Peace Mobiliza-
tion in April 1941. (See Daily Worker, May 2, 1941.)
At the convention of the APM, Wright signed a petiton of the Citizens Com-
mittee to Free Earl Browder.
680 COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS
Jack Young, secretary-treasurer, XJE Local llJ/3, Minneapolis
Jack Young was a member of the Minnesota State Committee to Free Earl
Browder. ( See Daily Worker, November 8, 1941. )
Young also signed a petition of the Citizens Committee to Free Earl Browder.
(See Sunday Worker, January 25, 1942.)
Young signed a petiton of the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties
in January 1943.
Ruth Young, executive secretary, TJE District h, meni'ber, VE general executive
hoard, delegate to 1947 and 1948 VE conventions
Ruth l''oung's married name is Mrs. Irving C. Velson, and, as such, she Is a
member of the New Yoi'k State committee of the Communist Party. She occupies
one of the most strategic positions in the UERMWA. Miss Young has been an
avowed member of tlie Communist Party for many years.
Her Communist-front affiliations include the following:
(1) American Youth Congress — member of presiding committee of the New
York State Model Legislature of Youth, January 28-30, 1933.
(2) Civil Rights Congress — signer of manifesto. (See The Worker, May 25,
1947.)
(3) Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor — sponsor.
(4) Committee to Sponsor the Daily Worker and the Worker 1945 Fund
Campaign — member.
(5) Congress of American Women — vice chairman. (See The Worker, June
23, 1946.)
(6) International Women's Day — signer of greetings to the Soviet Union.
(See Sunday Worker, March 8, 1942.)
(7) Jefferson School of Social Science — member of the board of trustees.
(8) National Council of American-Soviet Friendship — sponsor of the Com-
mittee of Women. (See Daily Worker, February 10, 1944.)
(9) National Wallace-for-Pi-esident Committee — member. (See press release,
March 23, 1948.)
(10) Schappes Defense Committee— sponsor. (See Daily Worker, October 18,
1941.)
(11) School for Democracy- — lecturer. (See Daily Worker, January 21, 1942.)
(12) World Youth Congress — delegate.
Ruth Young was one of the speakers at the CIO Political Action Committee's
New York conference of January 14-15, 1944. In February 1938, she signed a
manifesto of the Young Communist League which read, in part, as follows:
"Forward to build a strong and powerful Communist Party ! Forward to the
American October !"
The reference to "October" is to the Bolshevik Revolution of Russia. When
Ruth Young was confronted at the 1941 convention of her union with the fact
that she had signed this manifesto, she made no denial.
Peres Zagorin, VE international field organizer
There is overwhelming evidence that Perez Zagorin is a Communist.
Zagorin is an instructor in the Jefferson School of Social Science, the Com-
munist Party's training school for Communist organizers, propagandists, and
agitators.
Zagorin was affiliated with the Citizens Committee of the Upper West Side.
This was a Communist-front organization which received extraordinary publicity
in the Daily Worker. This committee was cited as subversive by Attorney Gen-
eral Clark on September 25, 1948. (See Daily Worker, July 4, 1943.)
He is also affiliated with the Communist-front organization which is known
as the People's Radio Foundation, also listed as subversive by Attorney General
Clark.
On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the Communist Party's Daily
Worker, Perez Zagorin was one of a large group of Communist leaders in the
CIO who publicly hailed that seditious newspaper.
In December 1943, a Communist-front organization was set up to honor the
former head of the Communist International, Georgi Dimitrov. Perez Zagorin
was a member of this committee which was known as the Reichstag Fire Trial
Anniversary Committee. (See New York Times, December 22, 1943.)
Zagorin has written for the Communist quarterly magazine, Science and So-
ciety. ( See issues of summer 1945 and spring 1948. )
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF LABOR UNIONS 681
Jack S. Zucker, UE organiser, District I, Baltimore
For a number of years, Jack Zucker was national legislative representative of
the United Siioe Workers of America (CIO), with headquarters in Washington,
D. C. Both of the CIO unions, with which Zucker had been connected, are among
the most clearly Communist-dominated in the entire CIO.
For many years, Zucker has been known as a Communist. His public affilia-
tions give substantial support to his reputation as a Communist. He has been
affiliated with the following Communist-front organizations :
American Peace Mobilization.
Citizens Committee to Free Earl Browder.
Civil Riglits Congress.
National Federation for Constitutional Liberties.
National Negro Congress.
Washington CIO Committee to Reinstate Helen Miller.
Washington Peace Mobilization.
Zucker was an active delegate to the American Peace Mobilization in New York,
April 5, 1941. This fact was established in sworn testimony before the Special
Committee on Un-American Activities of the House of Representatives on May 21,
1941. This testimony established the fact that Zucker was a member of a "lobby
committee" from Washington, D. C, at the meeting of the American Peace
Mobilization in New York City.
At the meeting of the American Peace Mobilization, Zucker signed a petition
of the Citizens Committee to Free Earl Browder. This petition and its list of
signers were publised in the Daily Worker of May 2, 1941.
In May 1947, Zucker signed a manifesto defending the Commimist Party, under
the auspices of the Civil Rights Congress. (See The Worker, May 25, 1947.)
Last week, he was a member of a nine-man delegation to the White House, bear-
ing a statement denouncing the recent indictment of 12 national Communist
Party leaders. The statement was reported to have been signed by 1,100 labor
union leaders, and was issued under the auspices of the Civil Rights Congress,
an organization listed as subversive by Attorney General Clark. (See Daily
Worker, September 23, 1948.)
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